12 Dec 08 Leveraging Facebook
Build your brand by creating your Facebook Page or re-ignite consumer interest in your product like Nutella did. Nutella is a feel-good product that people like to have an association with, and is perfectly suited to succeed in a social-network campaign.
You can use Facebook pages to build contact lists or ‘Fans’ who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. You can then target these people with your messages, be it event invitations or competitions.
Facebook Social Ads offers a way to help people find your Facebook page. Once people start becoming fans, their friend’s see this in their newsfeed and may decide to become fans too. This means your social ad campaigns do not have to be expensive or lengthy exercises, since you benefit from viral gains.
You may however, decide to use Social Ads to direct traffic to your own website, in which case, you’ll want to make sure your ad copy and landing page(s) are optimised for converting browsers into buyers. One way to help assist conversions is to use Facebook Connect and another is to Use the Facebook Lexicon to understand who your audience is on this particular social network. This data may be useful in planning campaigns on other web channels also.
With Facebook Pages and Social Ads, you can narrowly target over 130 million active Facebook users, attach social actions about your business to your ads and create demand for your product with relevant ads.
Powerful reporting tools allow you to track your progress with insightful reports that tell you who is clicking on your ad allowing you to maximise ROI through optimisation.
Tags: Facebook, facebook connect, Online Marketing, Social Advertising, Social Media Marketing
11 Dec 08 Leveraging Social Networks
You can let people access your site with their existing social network login details and add social features to your site by accessing the data shared by social networks. You can also tell these networks about a user’s actions on your site so activities will show up on the social sites.
This minimizes friction especially for new users, but also for returning users. New users don’t have to register for your site. Instead they can simply use their social network id to access your website. By sending user actions on your site back to the social network, for example, as news feeds, you get free advertising and access to prospective new customers.
Social Networking Sites
Enable your users to…
- Seamlessly “connect” their Facebook account and information with your site
- Connect and find their friends who also use your site
- Share information and actions on your site with their friends on Facebook
Example: http://www.citysearch.com
- You can log in to Citysearch with your Facebook username and password.
- You can write reviews on CitySearch (and, if you allow it, Facebook Connect will put those reviews in your Facebook feed).
- When you search for reviews about a place, your Facebook friends’ reviews will show up at the top of the list. Prioritizing your friends’ reviews over those of random strangers is by far the most useful thing we’ve seen anyone do with Facebook Connect.
Another Example: Techcrunch
If you run ads on Facebook with a clickthrough link to Facebook Connect, chances are you would increase your ROI since you:
a) Reduce friction with the sign up form
b)Increase trust through your association with Facebook
The Myspace Open Platform, in addition to MySpaceID, encompasses its OpenSocial-compatible app platform and the Post To MySpace sharing feature.
MySpaceID is similar to Facebook Connect. Sites can add various elements of MySpaceID to allow their users to log in via their MySpace credentials, display their profile information, and find MySpace friends who are using those sites. Starting early in 2009, MySpace claim they will add the other features that Facebook Connect has now, such as publishing activities from partner sites to MySpace, and syndicating MySpace activities to partner sites. MySpace will also allow partner sites to take new user registrations beginning with their MySpace credentials and basic profile information.
MySpace works with Google Friend Connect, allowing users to log in to sites that have implemented Friend Connect with their MySpaceID
Based on OpenID, visitors to a Website that adds Friend Connect code will be able to sign in using their Google, Yahoo, AIM, MyspaceID or OpenID usernames and passwords. The Websites will also be able to add any OpenSocial apps developed by third parties. And it supports the OAuth data portability standard.
Mixi.jp is Japan’s number 1 social networking site with over 15 million members (that’s 1 out of every 5 Japanese Internet Users) Their API supports the exchange of user profile data via OpenID. The service is also providing a mechanism for users of 3rd party sites to limit access to content elsewhere to visitors who are their friends on Mixi.
Gigya Socialize is an aggregation service that allows your users to connect with their Facebook, MySpace and other social networking friends on your site using a singe API. Your site can then tap into the APIs enabled by multiple social networks.
For more coverage on how to leverage social media, check out the feedgrowth post.
How would you leverage social networks?
Tags: facebook connect, googe friend connect, linkedin, myspaceid, Social Media, social networks
