Is Facebook good for brands - if so which ones

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Permalink Reply by Captain Click Back on March 30, 2009 at 1:19pm

It's an interesting one Tony. I think clients/advertisers need to understand that internet usage has fundamentally changed in the last few years and that social media and the like are very powerful for SEO, Traffic and ultimately sales, but most of all brand perception. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc are the places where their audience is spending the majority of their time. One can't expect their audience to come to them, to their own individual brand sites, it's now about sailing in the same sea and offering their audience there the correct look and feel and interacting, even listening and reacting to the crowd.

As far as advertising goes, having a page, an app or even an Ad all work in limited ways, but they do work. We recently had one client who was prepared to get past the anti-social networking ad stigma, realising just how well one can target and its low cost and sold 2 houses for only a few hundred quids worth of spend. Now that's awesome ROI.

Without going on too much here in one post, a Facebook group in isolation is not enough, a client needs an all round social media toolkit, Facebook, OnlinePR, Video Syndication, Twitter, Mobile Apps etc etc. And they need to realise it needs to be updated and looked after. Within those environments they can then talk to an audience who are definately the evangelists out there. And get them on your side and you can create great perceptions for brands.

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Permalink Reply by Tony Brennand on March 30, 2009 at 1:26pm

Thanks for your reponse - and of course it is just one makreting channel of many, and to make best use of it, it needs to form part of the right mix - obviously B2C it almost certainly it the only route to go - do you think it is as useful in B2B arena - and like I said do you have any 'big' brands that have successfully affected their business through Facebook, or any other SM tool

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Permalink Reply by TinaTring on March 30, 2009 at 2:06pm

Love this quote from Shea Park, owner of Ad-Spark,

"Best advice for 2008: Go social, Go mobile, get into video, and consolidate to what matters most. Do not just go for the sale and beat customers in the face with ads. Court the visitor. Engage them, be honest, be relevant, treat them the best, and above all else-- let them know they are irreplaceable."

Sort of sums up what client's should do, but still they are only grasping banner ads in many cases.

Tony are you asking whether your agency should have a Facebook group or your clients? I would have thought across all the web 2.0 sites creativity could be utilised more now than ever before...

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Permalink Reply by Tony Brennand on March 30, 2009 at 2:37pm

Bit of both really - my opinion is that at very least we should have a series of SM elements - which both profile us, and indeed give us the necessary experience to advise our clients. The point is more about B2B - the principles you mention are totally valid, and are behavioural responses. I think anyone who has been in this industry any length of time would know your offer, and indeed offerings need to evolve - nothing new there.

The question is more about whether there are different 'channels' for business and consumers, or whether both can use each others. It seems obvious that if you want to make personal friends then sites like this will not be as good as say Facebook - but then you might make a business contact here that might turn into a friend - so maybe it does work both ways.

In terms of sales there are always two ways to sell - farming and hunting - maybe using SM is long term farming - you know growing grass to feed the cows to produce the milk to give to the lambs before they are sent for slaughter. Everything is linked in some way - question is (to use my previous analogy) should we just buy the milk as cheaply as possible, or should we grow the grass!!!!

Part of me thinks that to be taken seriously, you need to lend an ear to all fads and by proxy demonstrate that you are across all developments. The alternative to that is that someone should filter the good ideas from the bad ones, and even if you get it wrong, then only feature ideas/concepts/tools that genuinely offer value to whatever you are trying to do.

Probably more questions than answers in there, but really interesting in your further comments, and other people's contribution

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Permalink Reply by JonClarke on April 28, 2009 at 3:09pm

There are so many social media routes now, with more appearing each week, so using them for b2b can be tricky and time consuming. Who said Twitter was going to be so big, but 2 years ago I got MediaStarz set up on it and it draws me a lot of traffic now so it's an avenue I use for my clients and agency with varying degrees of success too.

Personally I prefer sites that the content can be picked up by search engines and this helps draw in eyeballs, awareness and in time business or partnerships and associations. Facebook doesn't offer that much in that respect, but I guess it's too big to leave out on it's own. Whereas this Ning site does very well on Google & Yahoo.

I'd say the best way is to update on social media sites a simple page regularly and use it as a signpost back to your main company site where at the end of the day you can host the best bits and showcases of what you do best. Over 10 years I've seen plenty of internet giants come and go, there will always be another bandwagon passing by so make your own website the final destination and you'll always have visitors.

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