Comments on: It’s time for advertising and social media to work together

By: anku.singh1989

anku.singh1989 — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:09:55 +0000

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By: used cars

used cars — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:48:28 +0000

ya this is so true that It’s time for advertising and social media to work together……

By: Social Media Can Be A Fantastic Driver Of Outbound Marketing | Community Sherpa

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:06:09 +0000

[...] most important aspect of this strategy is how you choose to tailor your conversation. The potential of Facebook to reach millions of people should be partnered with a cleverly [...]

By: Five social media recommendations for startups | Creativity_Unbound

Five social media recommendations for startups | Creativity_Unbound — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:36:26 +0000

[...] master conversation strategy. There are still marketers who do nothing but push out information. Polluting the stream will not [...]

By: Forrester on the future of agency client relationships | Creativity_Unbound

Forrester on the future of agency client relationships | Creativity_Unbound — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:59:57 +0000

[...] the adaptive marketing era, interactions have to generate conversations that stimulate participation. (Or as I like to say, “Advertising used to be about telling stories; now it’s about getting [...]

By: Content without walls: what comes next | Creativity_Unbound

Content without walls: what comes next | Creativity_Unbound — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:41:56 +0000

[...] to double as an iPhone app. And while an honest to goodness testimonial — inspired by an effective conversation strategy — might work from a blogger you actually trust, or a friend on Twitter, it typically makes [...]

By: Facebook and Google Socially Converging Upon Youth, Or Are Youth Leading the Way? « Face Youth Lab

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:59:40 +0000

[...] While an actualization of social networks has just started happening recently via offline support for online actions, the websites themselves have started to become more than networks purely within the online space. Facebook recently became the fourth largest distributor of news online, even rivaling Google News. Suggestions are beginning to emerge that Facebook may even become a ‘first go-to’ portal for many young people, John Palfrey recently suggested that they are now beginning to get their news through osmosis and “grazing” headlines their friends link to. Young people generally spend more time on social networking sites than they do Google and search engines, so it is no real surprise that shared content on Facebook surged fivefold in the last seven months. Yet the billion-dollar question still remains for Facebook, about whether it’s relatively simple and enjoyable (in comparison to MySpace) user experience can begin to pay similar money to the amount Google has been making for the last few years. Suggestions have varied from asking that question pessimistically, to thinking of it more positively as a centralizing internet force and to constructing a revenue stream that reflects it’s 400+ million users worldwide. [...]

By: edward boches

edward boches — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:42:43 +0000

Mel,
So sorry for taking a long time to get back to you. Almost forgot about this. First, thanks for the links to those other articles. Incredibly helpful. Second, not sure about Facebook Connect from all the possible angles. Some aspects of it are simple and easy, i.e. the consistent login. Others perhaps invite or encourage unproductive brand behavior. At a recent presentation I was asked about FB Connect from the perspective of one who thought that simply using it as a call to action would drive up friends for his brand. When I asked if he had any kind of conversation strategy to engage them, the answer was no. Not quite sure what he expected. It may be that FB connect saves you time and effort, not necessarily diminishing your time on FB or accessing your news feed. Remains to be seen. We do know a couple of things: there are a lot of people on FB and they spend most of their online time there. However, I find the news feed too cluttered, even on my iPhone. And if brands or even public service orgs send me too much stuff I lose ‘em. Still, whether it takes place on FB or elsewhere, the art and science of conversation strategy is growing. We haven’t even started to talk about social bookmarking as content an connection yet. More to come.

By: Mel Exon

Mel Exon — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:50:45 +0000

Edward

Thank you for such a deceptively simple, incisive post. A few thoughts in no particular order:

Some time ago I was happily dismissing Facebook as a stagnant lake – full of stuff I’d left behind when I (impatiently) skipped town and dived into the fast flowing river that is Twitter. Around the time they bought Friendfeed last year, I started to pay a lot more attention.

I have just read Steve Rubel’s piece which also sums up the ‘conversion’ I’ve made in recent months – highly recommend it as a companion piece to your post: http://bit.ly/boSENG)

Newsfeeds are the single most extraordinary opportunity for brands, if they play it right. The cliched phrase ‘fish where the fish are’ has never been truer, or frankly faster and simpler. In a time-starved, ADD world, I want ”simple social”, which is exactly what Facebook are delivering.

It follows that you’ve hit the nail on the head with your point about brands needing to care MUCH more about what they’re doing to fuel the newsfeeds they’ll appear in -as you put it, their conversation strategy – over what their static FB page looks like.

We’re also having the same conversations about experimenting here – it’s probably more expensive in the long run NOT to do so.

Finally, I liked the honesty of your open ‘invite people’ display ads. Why the hell not. (Frankly, this HAS to be better than the ludicrously poor, pseudo-personalised ads that pop up currently – ‘You’re female? 38 years old? Into Tech and Photography? You will love this pink camera phone!!!’… but that’s a rant for another day.)

To Ben’s point about whether or not outbound messaging works in this environment, I guess my answer is it’s up to the brand to be useful and entertaining in that space in order to earn the right* to appear in my newsfeed, let alone be ‘liked’ or commented upon. I’d stress again though: it’s fairly effortless distribution of content and low level, easy interaction thanks to FB’s functionality (which is really why I disagree with Ben in this case – the term ‘conversation’ sounds much more demanding than it is in reality for a fan on FB). It’s then up to the brand to keep it relevant and interesting and, of course, create awareness in the first place.

*I accept some brands earn that right instantly, whereas a lot of FMCG brands have to work harder to be acceptable in a social space like FB. Either that, or they accept the ROI just doesn’t justify the effort / there are better ways to connect with their audience…though I’d still suggest they regularly review whether that still holds true and at the very least take the opportunity to listen in.

The only thing that’s missing in your post, which reads like a very generous, snackable yet philosophical guide to brands on Facebook, is a discussion around the role of Facebook Connect. Again (sorry, I sound like a stuck record here), it’s radically simplifying social activity on the web. The jury is out on whether or not that will ultimately be to the detriment of Facebook – see Tim Malbon’s Telegraph article tackling this (another companion piece, if I may suggest it: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7154162/Does-Facebook-have-a-future.html), but worthy of another discussion, I think.

Thanks again Edward.
.-= Mel Exon´s last blog ..Where does the agency end, and the crowd begin? =-.

By: Thanaïs

Thanaïs — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:15:53 +0000

It is quite true that advertising through social media has become quite important. However, having an ad on facebook can only become productive if it leads to conversations between fans. The brand should probably find areas of interest that their fans would be willing to discuss and still relate to the brand.
However, as you mentioned in your last post, you have to love the brand to get to love the ads. I think it is the same thing for facebook: I do believe that users must probably already have some kind of interest towards the brand before they get to make the effort to become a fan of it. Also, it is quite unlikely that a facebook user will willingly go on the faceook page of a brand if the only thing he will gain from it is to see the same ad.
Moreover, I wonder if there are not only specific types of brands which could use facebook for advertising such as clothing brands which are closely related to the image and lifestyle of the people using them. Brands for cleaning supplies for example do not seem relevant to facebook, it does not really fit the image of the network. Don’t you agree?