Memos on Secrets of the Post-Advertising Age

TO: High-Level Business Executives

FROM: The Executive Whisper

What began as a story comparing Facebook Pages and Groups, quickly evolved into how Facebook as changed Pages and what it means for marketers.

First, a brief explanation of Facebook Pages

Facebook frowns upon commercial entities or public figures setting up profiles. It even put in place limitations that restrict a profiler’s ability to speak to larger audiences. Instead, companies are encouraged to create “pages” which allows Facebook users to join or “become a fan” of the individual, company, product, service, or concept. When users become a fan of a company, the company’s icon or logo shows up on the user’s profile page. Users can interact with the company’s page by writing a message on an area called the “Wall” for others to see, as well as upload photos and join other fans in discussion groups. Companies are also able to add applications to their pages that engage their users with videos, reviews, flash content, and more.

Since pages are integrated with Facebook’s advertising system, page owners can easily advertise to fans by sending them news, promotional announcements, and offers. They also have access to software that provides analytics of their fan base.

Finally, a Facebook page improves a company’s natural search rankings, i.e., its search engine optimization, because Facebook pages get indexed by Google – and Google displays a sampling of which pages Facebook users are fans of.

Facebook Pages Compared to Facebook Groups

Companies, clubs, and public figures can also establish groups which Facebook users  can join. Group membership can be controlled by the administrator, so a group may be open (anyone can join), closed (the admin has to approve all members), or secret (only the members and invitees know the group even exists). Groups tend to be more informal and based around interests or events. Anyone can set up a group around any topic. However, a significant drawback for businesses is that groups can’t be customized and no applications can be added. In addition, there’s a 5000 emailing threshold, which prevents groups of substantial size from communicating with all members at once. Groups, in general, are wonderful for small businesses that want to start marketing themselves within the Facebook community and to bring together people in their industries.

Most companies, especially with the recent changes, should opt for setting up a Facebook page.

The Changes to Facebook Pages and What It Means to Marketers

Beginning today, March 11, Facebook launched extensive changes to its user profiles and branded pages. Users will now have much greater flexibility in the way they share and follow information. Borrowing from Twitter, a user’s home page will now feature a news “stream” (which used to be called a news feed) that updates in near real time, instead of refreshing every 10 minutes or so. Users will also be able to filter content more easily to see updates only from family, closest friends, or a smaller network of friends.

Facebook is also replacing the status box at the top of the page with what it is more broadly calling the publisher box — asking “What’s on your mind?” Users can drop not only their musings but also photos and videos into it, and that material flows into the news stream their friends see.

Branded pages also underwent significant changes, and now resemble, both visually and functionally, standard Facebook profiles, including tabs and wall design as well as the “status” feature. This all means that businesses can publish content directly to their fans’ homepages, and allows them to interact with their fans much more frequently through status updates, links and questions – essentially moving into their fans’ social graphs. Think Twitter times ten.

Further, Facebook applications will now be integrated into a company’s page and can even direct users to specific tabs on a page with, presumably, targeted content.

Collectively these changes will produce a more engaged user experience between a company and its fans. And the best reason yet to develop and execute a Facebook strategy.

Topics we’ll cover include: Engagement Ads, Facebook Connect, Case Studies, and President Obama and Politics.

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