As many companies adopt social media outlets as platforms for marketing, Facebook stands out as a high-traffic, user friendly networking site. While there are challenges associated with marketing online, there are also many advantages to using Facebook as a marketing tool for one’s business.

One of Facebook’s greatest aspects is that users spend more time on the Facebook site than they do on other similar social media networks. Also, new studies show that people are representing themselves and their interests accurately, which allows companies to track potential customers based on their Facebook profile.

While Facebook is a great vehicle for marketing, there are areas of Facebook marketing that may prove challenging. Using fan pages and groups on a social platform allows for users to interact and leave postings, which may or may not always be favorable. Companies also must know how to respond to these postings, including damage control if needed. Using Facebook as a marketing tool requires a strong knowledge of social media if it is going to be a profitable investment.

Social Media Examiner Blog has a great post highlighting Facebook as a marketing tool:

1. The average American spends about 7 hours on Facebook monthly
2. 44% of social sharing on the internet is powered by Facebook
3. Facebook is the number two most popular site on the internet, behind Google
4. Users more accurately portray themselves on Facebook than previously imagined
5. Companies have seen an increase in their sales and customer loyalty by using Facebook as a marketing tool

Have you ever wonder what is all the buzz about social networking? Is this the latest trend in the online superhighway? So what is Social Networking anyway? I did a little Google and came across a good definition from whaissocialnetworking.com. SOCIAL NETWORKING is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision… if you will.  Although social networking is possible in person, especially in schools or in the workplace, it is most popular online. That makes total sense to me. Until recently I start to hear about Social Media. So what IS social media? Luckily I found a good site with definitions of the latest social web terms: http://www.pandemiclabs.com/research.php

According to Pandemiclabs.com, SOCIAL MARKETING is a catchall term often used to encompass other forms of new media marketing such as viral marketing and buzz marketing.

SOCIAL MEDIA is a form of online marketing characterized by the use of user-submitted and community-moderated content sites such as social news sites, social networks, social bookmarking sites, photo, and video sharing sites in order to propagate a marketing message. Viral Marketing can sometimes be considered a subset of social media marketing.

Now it makes more sense. So social networking is a component of social meda.Buckle up as we speed through the social web super highway. And along the way, there will be more new buzz words to pick up. One thing for sure, it is now time to embrace and leverage the power of social media and social marketing.

Who would have thought Twitter would be mentioned in the same article relating to Egyptian anti-government protest. Well, Twitter is the hero today, as sited in today’s CNN.com front page. This story proves the value of a real-time communication network that follows you wherever you go.

Buck, a graduate student from the Berkeley University was covering an anti-government protest in Mahalla, Egypt.  when he and his translator Mohammed Maree were arrested April 10.

Uncertain of his future, Buck sent a Twitter message using his cell phone – ‘Arrested’. Seconds later, Buck’s friends received the news that he was being held in Egypt. The Twitter message helped him find contacts in US, coupled with Buck being American enabled him to be released so quickly. Buck’s translator Maree however, was not so lucky, Maree was transferred to another jail. Egyptian government told US that Maree was later released, but so far Maree’s brother still has not heard from him, he suspect that Maree is still in jail. Want to read more?

I attended a session from the Gov2.0 Camp around Using Social media for Outreach. Here are the notes.

Educate – Frame the conversation – Deliberate on the issues – Identify shared priorities – Refine conversation – Bring back conversation - Act

Gov2.0 Camp March 27, 2009

Questions people want to get out of the session:

• How can we use web 2.0 tools effectively?
• Twitter strategy for outreach
• Using social media to create awareness
• How do you define success? (Google moderator)
• How to engage public in a meaningful way
• How do we use social media to gain trust in the customer base
• Connecting communities – promote collaboration
• Building online audience and drive to 1:1 relationships
• Media think tank outreach
• Communication to senior leaders on why they need to be involved in the social media
• Metrics, privacy issues, how do you know the impact
• Sharing best practices
• Security issues, guidelines on what to say and what not to say
• How we filter what will help us and what’s jus t the noise
• Inform the public on what we do
• Want to make sure that the vocal people do not drown out the conversation –by having topical blogs to drive the conversation
• Capitalize greater government transparency through social media
• Bridge cultures using social technology
• Elaborate and leverage the network
• Want to get beyond the numbers when measure success. How are we going to action the information to help set priority and utilize the information in a meaningful way
• How to overcome management resistance
• How to engage in the public through technology in the time of crises

What is meaningful participation? Meaningful is in the eye of the beholder, start with the mission and define the right mix that help you as an organization.

• Recommend a book written in 1965 by Ellul: Propaganda – How you skew information, depending on your purpose and how you are trying to influence. How unity and action need to work together.
• You can use social tool to establish relationship with people with 1:1 levels
• How do you start? Begin with a dialogue, keep it rolling by user generated content

o Make sure you know what people want to do

o How will you make it successful? Credibility

- It’s important to include what the citizens think (comments) as meaningful metrics

- One of the success measure is to see that their audience / comments self moderate

• People have to have a mechanism to know that their comments will make a difference

• Need to be responsible for managing the outcome, take ation and communicate that to the public
• Recommend to use Metafilter and Dailypost, which has a 24 hour delay to monitor the comments
• Set expectations to your audience has to understand that not every comments has to be responded to
• Social media Showing a face from the inside of the agency can express more government transparency
• America Speaks is hiring. Check out www.Americaspeaks.org/jobs

source: flickr.com

I attended the Gov 2.0 breakfast yesterday, hosted by BearingPoint and Information Week. We discussed topics around how government can benefit from using web 2.0 technologies. Below is the summary and my walk-away from the meeting:

·         Social media is a new way of managing across organizations, breaking the boundaries.

·         Set expectations and be realistic.

·          You cannot manage the entire group, but you can involve all for collaboration

·         How to get greater adoption to social media with the organization?  By gaining top-down advocacy.

Support needs to come from top leadership, where they have true interest and can benefit from the efforts. I have seen a few social media initiatives stall due to the lack of management support coupled by lack of linkage to business objectives.

·         Where do you look for inspiration? From other agencies/organizations that have implemented web 2.0 technologies.

·         Beware of the Shiny Object Syndrome. Web 2.0 seems to be the hottest thing on the web. Do spend some time to understand the technology and culture before you venture out.

·         80% of the value initially may be searchable information. Rather than file cabinet hidden. Don’t underestimate ‘electronic search’. Getting information out to the public.

·         There is inherent conflict between rules and usage. The more rules you create the less participation.

·         Organizational hierarchy is going to get disrupted. Thanks to web 2.0, communication is no longer coming from top-down. Rather bottoms-up, crisscross in all directions.

How do you start? 

·         Try out now tools while at the same time figuring out what you want to achieve

·         Understand your business objective and set a realistic goal

·         Expectations management , taking baby steps to approach this infancy stages of social media

·         be open to learning and be patient

·         A new set of shiny web 2.0 tool is only good if people adapt to it. And the reality is that it takes a while for the culture to shift and eventually change

My favorite quotes of the day:

·         Can political leadership not be an oxymoron?

·         Letting a 1000 flowers bloom when the gardener is anal-retentive