Facebook Offers Helps Businesses Leverage Social Mobile Local

On May 3rd, Facebook officially rolled out its new Groupon-like marketing platform, Facebook Offers, to all local U.S. companies. With Offers, businesses can distribute coupons or other promotions to fans directly through news their news feeds. Two things make this a potential boon for your brand:  1) Facebook isn’t charging anything or taking a cut, and 2) when a Facebook user claims your Offer, his or her friends will see an ad in their news feed; the action also posts to the user’s Timeline.

So not only can you keep 100% of the proceeds from an offer, but every time one of your fans purchases, you’re broadcasting the offer to that person’s entire following.

Talk about reach.

What’s in it for Facebook? Ad revenue, of course. The social network is hoping you’ll get enough free business from Offers that you’ll pony up cash to purchase Facebook ads to increase your fan-base and potential coupon subscriber base. If it works, Offers could be a win-win for both the social network and your business.

Admittedly, the new Offers product is most relevant for brands trying to draw bodies into a bricks-and-mortar storefront. But for companies who fit the bill, Offers represents the perfect combination of social, mobile and local.

For example, imagine a smartphone user hanging out at a local coffee shop sipping a latte and logging into Facebook (with roughly 50% of FB users accessing the site via mobile each month, this is not too far-fetched). Browsing their newsfeed, the user notices a coupon offer from a local business they follow. Intrigued, the user clicks on the “Get Offer” button, which sends it to the primary email address associated with his or her Facebook account. To redeem, the user can either present a printed copy of the offer to the merchant, or show the offer from their mobile phone.

When a user obtains an offer, a story about it is automatically added to the user’s timeline, which by default is visible to the user’s friends. Users can also share offers with whomever they choose by clicking the “share offer” link beneath the story.

Pretty handy.

On paper, Facebook Offers seems like a brilliant integration of social, mobile and local, providing brands an easy way to generate more business and broaden their social reach, all in real time. We’ll have to see how many businesses will actually experiment with Offers, and to what extent users will integrate the service into their daily lives.

If you decide to try out Offers, make sure your staff is fully briefed regarding all aspects of each promotion. Just remember that deriving business from a massive social media site structured to promote social sharing can be a double-edged sword for your brand. Get it right, and you’ll likely broaden your online reach and enjoy an immediate uptick in sales; get it wrong, and you may do serious damage to your online reputation at a point in history when such a thing is an increasingly valuable commodity.

Is your business planning on using Facebook Offers? If not, what's holding you back?

¹ Search Engine Watch, “Facebook Offers Rolls Out to Local US Businesses”

Image Courtesy of MJA Impressions

 

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Social for Small Business: Is Facebook Cooler than Google?

In case you missed it, YouTube/Google threw a star-studded event for advertisers Wednesday night to promote its $100 million investment in new "channels," Google’s initiative to bring professional entertainment to the world's largest video site.³ There was Jay-Z, Flo Rida and the Neon Trees, Julia Stiles, Jennifer Beals, and Virginia Madsen, all partying down with the search giant’s generalissimo, Eric Schmidt.

Better still, Google unveiled a $200 million campaign to market the premium video channels by using YouTube and the Google Display Network, among other resources.¹

Get ready, you’re about to see a flood of online ads promoting Google’s latest pet project.

"We will fish where the fish are in a mighty big pond," said Google VP of content Robert Kyncl in an appeal to ad agency execs. "If you want to lead, join us now for the next seven years. We can build audiences together. We can build brands together" (my emphasis).¹

Yuck.

What happened to good ol’ “do no evil” Google? Let us remember the words of Larry Page, who wrote in a recent blog post, “We have always wanted Google to be a company that is deserving of great love.”

But I’m confused. Isn’t this the same company that changed its search algorithm to level the playing field for the little guy, who supported such free-love inbound marketing principles as unique content creation?  

Judging by the preponderance of back slapping from the cigar-chomping, scotch-swirling Madison Avenue illuminati in attendance at the YouTube gala, I’d say Google is more focused on making a “push” toward the old-school marketing world order.

By contrast you have Facebook, whose apparent rejection of big media, even as the social network prepares for its historic IPO, has left ad agencies in an uproar. As David Smith, the CEO of digital agency Mediasmith, noted with exasperation: "Facebook just doesn't seem to care. They're still trying to grow this thing. The question is, do they want the big bucks?"²

Big bucks indeed.

When taken together, these two developments leave me asking one question: Is Facebook cooler than Google?

ABOUT FACE(BOOK)

Paul Sloan of CNET wrote a post on this topic, where he quotes Mike Parker, the co-president of U.S. operations of Tribal DDB, talking about his frustration with Facebook: "For the longest time, we've been trying to call Facebook to do business with them and there's nobody to pick up the call," said Parker. "They're very focused on the consumer experience, and less focused on revenue and working with advertisers."

Flakes.

Sloan goes on to recount the grievance of another exec at one of the world's biggest interactive agencies, who spoke on the condition of anonymity: "We know the reach is there," she said. "The problem is that Facebook isn't willing to do anything different for the client that wants to spend $10,000 versus $10 million." (How about those of us with considerably less than 10k to spend?)

So what’s got big media champing at the bit to advertise with Facebook, anyway?

As I noted in an earlier blog, Facebook has been aggregating the profile information of its now roughly 900 million-strong user base for years, and it’s able to use much of this information to provide marketers laser-focused ad targeting. Location, age, gender, precise interests, Facebook connections, sexual orientation, relationship status, languages, education and specific workplaces are some of the fields on offer for keen marketers.

If they can get at it.

Much to the consternation of ad execs, Zuckerberg reminds us in a recent letter to shareholders, "Facebook was originally not created to be a company …it was built to accomplish a social mission -- to make the world more open and connected." And that mission, he writes, continues to underlie all decisions the company makes.²

TAKEAWAY

In fairness, all glitz aside, Google (as usual) has big plans for its YouTube video platform, envisioning it as the logical evolution of cable TV.  As Chris Hardwick, host of Nerdist channel, points out, "The web will be to cable TV what cable TV was to broadcast.”³

As the world goes social mobile, it’s hard to argue against web-based video playing a prominent role in the future of entertainment. In fact, that’s exactly what Google is betting on with its focus on YouTube premium channels.

I don’t often question Google’s destination, just its disjointed motives. As Google tries to be everything to everybody, Facebook seems to be staying on message by aligning with Zuckerberg’s social mission (at least as much as a 100-billion dollar company can these days).

I doubt if this point will be lost on the Millennials, whose spending power is set to eclipse that of the Baby Boomers by 2017, thereby driving the future of American Consumerism.

What’s the bottom line for small business? At least for now, Facebook is cooler than Google.

¹ Mashable, “Google Pledges $200 Million to Market Premium YouTube Channels”

² CNet,”Frustrated advertisers to Facebook: Take our money -- please!”

³ Ad Age, “YouTube Commits $200M to Promote Premium 'Channels'”

Image Courtesy of Ogilvy

 

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10 Tips to Gain More Exposure on Facebook

If you’re like most companies, your Facebook business page is meant to build connections with new prospects and solidify relationships with existing customers. Facebook’s switch to Timeline facilitates these goals by providing a more visually-engaging and user-friendly format for displaying content that showcases the entire history of your brand’s Facebook posts in chronological order. By doing so, Facebook has made it easier to reach out to your target audience and gain more exposure for your business.

If you’re unsure how your brand can capitalize, here are 10 actionable tips that will help you gain more exposure on your Facebook business page:

Create a Visual Experience - With the addition of Timeline, your Facebook page should be as visually appealing as possible.  The top of the Timeline features a large banner image; this is an ideal place to show off your business. Use your company logo, a picture of the business, or a team picture of your employees. Make sure the business name or logo is in plain view.¹Form Connections – Think of your Facebook brand page as an interactive blog that tells your story and encourages user engagement.  Use your brand page to connect with new prospects and form deeper relationships with existing customers. Be as creative as possible, and determine which activities or apps will best support your company’s brand message and facilitate interaction with your fans. Personalize your brand; show your company’s human side.Post Relevant Content – It’s easier to form deeper connections with prospects and customers if you’re providing solid value by offering enticing content that fans find entertaining, informative or useful (blog posts, e-books and white papers, survey results, webinar invites, You Tube videos, etc.). Whatever you post, make sure it’s relevant to your target audience.Avoid Jargon - Posts that use buzzwords or business jargon like “optimize” significantly decrease the number of fans for a Facebook page. According to inbound marketing specialists Hubspot, these pages have 100 fans, as opposed to the average page with 624 fans.Make Your Content Sharable  - To increase your Facebook exposure, you need to design offers and content that will motivate people to “like” or “share” your page. This will turn fans into brand evangelists, providing your content the exponential reach it deserves.  In this way, Facebook can serve as a powerful tool for business promotion.Encourage Photo Tagging- Tagging photos can be a very effective way to promote your business and engage customers. Take pictures of your business, of employees in action, or of your products, and tag them with your Facebook business page profile. Tagged photos will appear in the series of five thumbnail images at the top of the Facebook business page.¹Promote User Check-Ins – Facebook Check-ins show up on a user’s Timeline and let everyone else in their social network know that they were at your place of business. 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations on social media.² Make sure to leverage such user-generated content by encouraging customers to let their social network know they do business with you.Target the Friends of Fans – Don’t be afraid to target the friends of your current fans to increase your fan base. When a friend of your fan likes your page, this will appear in the news feed because your fan is connected to two entities – their friend and your page.³Offer a Unique Promotion – Build up hype for your brand by running a promotion that really engages your fan base. For example, Verizon wireless runs a weekly contest where fans can send in a pic of themselves in a unique locale; the winner’s photo is then posted on Verizon’s Facebook page as the banner picture. Remember to align any promotions with your company’s marketing strategy (Verizon markets itself as the carrier with the largest network, therefore showing pics of people all over the world makes sense).Experiment with Sponsored Stories/Paid Ads - You can pay Facebook to highlight an activity or post as a “Sponsored Story” with the theory that such posts will gain more exposure with fans.  Facebook allows you to repurpose older posts or create new ones, giving you an opportunity to resurrect older material and call attention to it once again.

Facebook Ads are more straightforward: you create a message to share, and choose the demographic you want to reach. Thanks to Facebook’s success aggregating data from its 900 million-strong user base, you can really drill down ad targeting with incredible accuracy.

These 10 actionable tips will help you gain exposure for your Facebook page by building connections with new prospects and solidifying relationships with existing customers.

What steps are you taking to gain more exposure on your Facebook business page?

¹ PC World, “Use Facebook Timeline to Promote Your Business”

² Socialnomics, “39 Social Media Statistics to Start 2012”

³ JPL Creative, “Facebook Brand Pages–The Free Ride is Over”

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Google, Facebook and Mobile Flush Groupon Down the Toilet

Online daily deal provider Groupon, once the darling of Wall Street, has had its share of woes in recent months. Its stock is down over 50% from November's IPO price, thanks in part to a pending SEC investigation of the company’s Q4 2011 earnings restatement (actual net revenue was significantly lower when refunds to consumers for unused deals were factored in). In addition, merchants are beginning to pull back from Groupon, surveying their options in an increasingly crowded geo-local marketing landscape that includes the likes of Yelp, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Living Social and Foursquare, to name a few.

In his yearly letter to shareholders released Monday, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason tried to rally the troops by announcing his vision to re-shape the company into a one-stop marketing solution for local merchants, or as he put it, “the operating system for local commerce.”

Unfortunately for Groupon, Mason’s vision does not mesh with reality. The truth is, the daily deals site has already seen its best days, and will soon be marginalized by its competitors, especially Google and Facebook, who are rolling out geo-local couponing programs that will suck the air out of Groupon’s market share.

MOBILE HASTENS THY DEMISE

As smartphone adoption continues to grow nationwide, nearly three-quarters of smartphone owners are accessing their mobile devices to get location-based information in real time. A new study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that about 74% of smartphone users utilize location-based services to find information. In addition, one in five (18%) are checking in to local businesses with geo-social services like Foursquare.¹

Facebook and Google have responded in kind to this trend toward mobile-based local marketing.

On May 3rd, Facebook rolled out its new local marketing platform, Facebook Offers, to all local U.S. companies. With Offers, businesses can distribute coupons or other promotions to fans directly through their news feeds. Facebook isn’t charging anything for the service, and when a Facebook user claims an Offer, his or her friends will see it in their news feed, further amplifying its reach.

Less than a week later (May 9th), Google announced its latest update for Google Maps for Android that supports Google’s Groupon-like daily deal platform, Google Offers. With the new update, local merchants can attract customers to their storefront with free giveaways or coupons that Android users can see pop-up in real time on Google Maps.

THY COMPETITION ENSURES IT

This is not good news for Groupon, considering Facebook has nearly 500 million fairly engaged mobile users. Groupon, on the other hand, cannot boast a huge social media or search platform. As such, the daily deal site is dependent on people going out of their way to engage with its mobile app when looking for offers. The problem is, if people don’t find any relevant offers on Groupon’s mobile app, they might give up and jump on Facebook or Google, where they’re much more likely to stay engaged. It’s more advantageous for platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google to insert on-site offers because people are already there.²

As Facebook and Google adapt to the dramatic consumer shift to mobile, Groupon’s days are numbered. Each will utilize economies-of-scale coupled with their massive reach to outflank Groupon, while smaller players like Yelp and Foursquare continue to nibble away at Groupon's market share one merchant at a time.

I fear that before it’s all over, Andrew Mason and crew will be wishing they had taken Google up on the $6 billion buyout offer while they had the chance.

For small businesses trying to shape a marketing strategy, the intense competition in the geo-local business space is a good thing, especially with the relevant players tripping over themselves to offer your brand a better deal.

Whatever you do, make sure to experiment with various platforms, and avoid committing to any large ad spend or long-term contract until you’re absolutely sure you’ve found the golden goose. Above all, remember that in today’s era of frenetic marketing-tech innovation, the only certainty is change.

Just ask Andrew Mason.

¹ Mashable, “More Smartphone Owners Use Location-Based Products”

² Venture Beat, “Why Groupon Now Won’t Work”

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Why Facebook Rocks for Developers, Marketers and Users

MEA CULPA. OK, I have to admit I’ve done my share of Facebook-bashing over the past year. “They’ll never survive without a search engine”, I said. “They’re mobile strategy is lacking, they’ve got no solid plan for monetization,” the list goes on. With over 900 million-users, a solid ad revenue stream, a brilliant app developer program, a successful long-term social mobile strategy, and a looming IPO, I have to concede, I’ve become a convert. Facebook rocks for developers, marketers and users...period.

DEVELOPERS: PLEASE BRING US YOUR APPS

As the world goes mobile, Facebook has figured out a way to cater to the app developer community at just the right time.

Here’s an excerpt from their developers guide:

“Over 425 million users access Facebook from a mobile device every month. Facebook Platform lets you bring these users and their friends to your mobile apps, creating a more engaging and personalized experience for your users.”

Facebook makes it easy for users to share a developer’s app with their friends using Requests, News Feed, and Open Graph. They’ve created a cross-platform interface (Javascript SDK) for apps to work across multiple mobile devices.  Finally, Facebook Credits allows developers to accept payments for digital goods or services within the developer’s app.

In other words, Facebook is catering to the needs of an app developer, covering promotion, distribution, and payment.

For those who need more convincing, here are some recent stats from Facebook’s developers blog:

Facebook sent more than 160 million visitors last month to mobile apps (up from 60 million in late February).These mobile visitors were responsible for more than 1.1 billion visits to mobile apps in the same time frame (up from 320 million in late February).Seven of the top ten grossing iOS apps and six of the top ten grossing Android apps are integrated with Facebook. A few examples: Branch Out- Social professional network app. Grown from 1 million monthly active users to over 12.5 million monthly active users 12 weeks after releasing their Facebook integrated mobile web app. Over 18 million people visited BranchOut from Facebook in the past month.Viddy- Essentially an Instagram for video, Viddy's iOS app allows people to capture, alter, and share videos with their iPhone. Since integrating with Facebook, Viddy's community has grown to over 16 million registered users.Flixster- Movie review and info mobile web app, Flixster has grown the number of visitors from Facebook 10x to over 480,000 daily in the past 4 weeks. These visitors generated a total of 15 million visits in the same period.

Let’s not forget that Instagram is an app too, just one that Zuck wanted all to himself. Chris Taylor wrote a great post in Mashable outlining Instagram’s phenomenal growth. The photo-sharing app now has more than 50 million users, adding approximately 5 million users PER WEEK. Granted, the app’s recent release on the Android platform has helped contribute to growth, but it is tops in the iOS app store as well. As Taylor notes, maybe that $1 billion it cost Facebook to buy Instagram was a bargain after all.

MARKETERS: PLEASE GIVE US YOUR DOLLARS

Like a squirrel gathering nuts for the winter, Facebook has been aggregating the profile information of its now roughly 900 million-strong user base for years, and it’s able to use much of this information to provide marketers laser-focused ad targeting. Location, age, gender, precise interests, Facebook connections, sexual orientation, relationship status, languages, education and specific workplaces are some of the fields on offer for keen marketers.

Another way the tech giant is trying to involve the marketing community is by offering sponsored stories, giving brands an opportunity to create stories that show up in a news feed of fans and their friends.

Attempting to court big advertisers, Facebook started Reach Generator, a premium advertising solution for large clients seeking to reach a larger percentage of fans through sponsored ads.

In short, Facebook wants to keep marketers happy: last quarter alone, Zuck and crew brought in a cool 1 billion in ad revenue. Unfortunately, (and ironically) as Paul Sloan points out in a recent post on CNet, Facebook is having trouble keeping up with advertiser demand. No shocker there, given their massive growth coupled with the virtual gold mine of user data they are sitting on.

USERS: PLEASE DONATE YOUR ORGANS

I won’t bother insulting your intelligence with an in-depth analysis of why Facebook appeals to users; if you have a heartbeat (and I sincerely hope you do) you’ve already heard enough about that.

Instead, I’ll leave you with a visceral example of Facebook’s intimate relationship with its user base. The same day Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg made the announcement that users can add if they are organ donors to their timelines, the Donate Life California registry had an 800 percent increase in its organ donor registrations. Social engineering at its finest (maybe we should change the old children’s game “Simon Says” to “Mark Mutters”… just a thought).

For all of the snarky criticism of Facebook, they’ve largely gotten it right. In a world that is going social mobile at breakneck speed, they’ve figured out how to parlay their massive social network in a way that appeals to both mobile app developers and advertisers. Moreover, by doing so they’re able to offer an endless stream of new content to feed and grow their massive user base, which in turn gives them more data to leverage for greater ad revenue. Genius, plain and simple.

Which brings us to Facebook’s pending IPO roadshow, which begins Monday, May 7th. IPO roadshows ( in which company management presents its strategy to prospective investors) typically last one to two weeks, after which (sometimes during which) the stock begins trading.¹

Facebook is set to raise at least $5 billion in what will likely be the largest Silicon Valley IPO ever.

What are they going to do with all of that cash?

As Scott Sweet of research firm IOP Boutique recently noted, "I have not seen as broad-based interest in an IPO since Google. Investor demand is immense. I expect a roadshow that will rival all roadshows where investors will be turned away at the door."¹

However expensive Facebook’s IPO share price, I have a feeling that, like Instagram, it may prove to be a bargain after all.

¹ Reuters, "Update 1-Facebook's IPO show to hit the road May 7-source"

Image courtesy of Kamukamo.com

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