Group Buying Power

Learn How Groupon Works! from The Point on Vimeo.

How much is a Facebook fan worth?

By fanning the page, users had the name of the fan page show up in their wall feed and found some enjoyment out of it. Generally, after viewing many of these myself, this was the extent of their participation. They simply liked the idea of the phrase or name of the fan page, and ‘liked’ the page to have it show in their status.

Here are a few examples:

“I wish I could make it through a full tube of Chapstick before I lose it”

“Pretending to text while walking pass someone u don”t want to speak to”

“I hate it when you’re with MC Hammer and he doesn’t let you touch anything.”

“choking on your drink when someone says something funny”

Are all of these fans being generated in a way that leave major brands scratching their heads? After all, these brands spend a lot of money to reach and generate new fans. And here we have all kinds of fan pages created by all different types of people, with numbers that meet or exceed some major brands.

At first glance, it might appear that these fan page creators a ‘genius’ in their own right. That they have unlocked a ’secret’ that other marketers haven’t, and that secret is equivalent to the money spent for major brands to generate fanning. But this is not true, for all of the following reasons.

All fans are not created equal. A ‘fan’ who happens to see a funny title or fan page name, and decides to ‘like’ it, does so in a much different state of mind with a different set of expectations. He or she thinks it’s funny, and knows that some of his or her friends will likely see the name or title of the fan page appear on their profile wall. And that is literally the extent of the expectations for the majority of users. Now, consider that a fan generated through a promotion, facebook ad, or other activity used by major brands to recruit fans has a much different set of expectations. These fans are much more ‘durable’ in the sense that they are ‘liking’ the particular fan page with a specific set of expectations in mind, that likely exceed the ‘title or name’ showing up in their wall feed. Thus, they are more likely to hold increased value for the brand as extended participants.

So, two fan pages held side by side – one created by a major brand, and the other created by a ‘rogue’ creator do not hold the same value even if both have the same amount of fans, or a reasonably similar amount. If you look at the interactions from the fans, you will see a difference in the ‘type’ of interactions and the ‘value’ that the users put in their comments and actions.

Here is one example for you to view and judge for yourself:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/ChapStick?ref=ts
‘Official’ brand page.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/I-wish-I-could-make-it-through-a-full-tube-of-Chapstick-before-I-lose-it/340639390740?ref=ts
‘Rogue’ fan page not affiliated with the official brand.

View the ‘types’ of comments along with the perceived value of those comments, and judge for yourself.

It seems that Facebook will have to sort out how to handle the trend. Now, they have a large and growing group of fan pages being used for what seems to be an unintended purpose – which could ‘water down’ the overall perceived value of fan pages. Yet, there is something justifiably permissible in that the users, in large numbers, feel that something in the viral nature of humor and how fan pages are shared, fits together. It might be wise for Facebook to consider this further and find a way to elevate the use of this learning and improve the platform appropriately.

Facebook and SEO

Back in November, Google has released a social search featured – obviously recognizing that search engine results that can be drawn from your personal social circle are more likely to be trusted. In other words, if you search for a product, restaurant, or other information and someone in your social circle has already posted something related to your search in a Tweet, or in another social media network – your search results would show the ‘friend’ in your social circle and what they posted about the topic/place/product. Now, you have a personal connection with the information and more reason to trust it. Read more about Google’s Social Search.

So the competition heats up as Facebook starts to integrate search engine results in their Facebook platform, and Google tries to integrate social network results in their search engine.

WeReward Logo

You need:

1. An iPhone
2. A Twitter, Facebook or Foursquare account
3. A Paypal account

Go here to here to check it out/sign up through my referral (if ya don’t mind, please!) – I have also embedded their video explanation below: WeReward

Here’s how it works:

Facebook Video

The Open Graph API has gotten so much attention lately, that some may have forgotten about all of the various options with Facebook social plugins.

Facebook is learning how to communicate things to it’s audience, so that CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t have to issue an article for the Washington Post to publish in order to help fix public perception. Zuckerberg’s Washington Post article is sort of ironic, since the Don Graham, CEO of the Washington Post, was almost a primary investor in Facebook. Read Fortune Magazine’s May 24th article on The Temptation of Facebook for more details on that.

Zuckerberg is only 25, and has even taken executive training so he can help lead better. Everyone makes mistakes, and so does every company – but Facebook obviously has a little more attention than most businesses.

Here is the video on Facebook, that explains Facebook Social Plugins:

Twitter banned sponsored tweets this week. Literally, killing the business model for several profitable services currently offering tweets by celebrities and more. Twitters move appears strategic, to eliminate competition for Twitters Promoted Tweets which rolled out on April 13th, 2010. Plans include companies like Starbucks and Red Bull as advertisers in the first phase.

Promoted Tweets Starbucks

So now, Twitter may have just turned the lights out for some start-ups formed around promoting sponsored Tweets by celebrities and Twitter power-users. These companies use software that processed the transaction from the advertiser, through the actual Twitter-user. But these ‘automated’ API tweets will now get ‘caught’ in the stream and removed. Leaving only the ‘caveman’ option of copy and paste, until other possible workarounds are developed. Some of these companies include:

www.SponsoredTweets.com
www.Twitpub.com
www.Twittad.com
www.Betweeted.com
www.Ad.ly

The good news, is that Twitter plans on sharing the revenue from it’s Promoted Tweets with developers in a 50/50 split. The platform has around 105 million registered users, roughly 25% the size of Facebook, but the nature of the platform is geared towards real-time/dynamic interactions which advertisers can take advantage of.

For instance, consider how fast Twitter trends develop, and how a company could take advantage of keywords associated with a newsworthy keyword trend – like BP and the current oil spill. Dawn is currently running an ad campaign showing how their product was used to help clean animals caught in oil spills, so if the keyword trend “#BP oil spill” is occurring on Twitter – Dawn could purchase advertising via Twitters Promoted Tweets and receive top placement in Twitter results, driving significant and instant traffic to a target video or promotional information about purchasing Dawn. The main basis of the Dawn campaign is that by purchasing Dawn you contribute $1 to save wildlife
– placing this message at the top of a Twitter trend such as “#BP oil spill” would drive instant, relevant traffic to a very primed audience.

Do you believe Twitters Promoted Tweets will work? What other ways could they leverage advertising in the current platform?

Social Media Stats

As reported back in March on the Big W, Facebook surpassed Google as the #1 online destination in the United States. Therefore social media is now that #1 online destination, surpassing search engines in the United States.

With the incredible rise of mobile in 2010, our guess is that the next release will include more statistics on mobile as well. great job on the video Erik!

Coca-Cola Fan Page Stats

This is extraordinary news for brands looking for further market affirmations that they have been on the right track – building Facebook Fan Pages with millions of followers, and engaging consumers in social causes.

Why? Think about how much further ahead Coca-Cola will be when they have 5 million+ consumer connections in social media. Consider what will happen when friends of those 5 million+ consumers search for related terms to soda/beverages online: they will see Coca-Cola in the search results. How significant is the reach of those 5 million+ consumers? Consider that the average Facebook user has 130 friends, therefore:

5,000,000 consumer connections x 130 friends avg = potential reach of 650,000,000

To connect the final dots, this means that potentially 650,000,000 could see Coca-Cola in their trusted search results as social media and information on the web become further enveloped to provide users more trusted and credible results.

How do you see social media in 2 years? 5 years?