“Besides the slowing user growth and declining time spent on these sites, users appear to be growing less responsive to ads, according to several advertisers and online placement firms. If advertisers can’t figure out how to reverse these trends, social networking could end up as a niche market in the online ad world, smashing hopes and valuations across Silicon Valley.” - BusinessWeek, February 7, 2008.
When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg came to Madison Avenue last November and proclaimed that “once every hundred years media changes,” he made sure to leave a lasting impression (whether positive or negative) on advertisers: Facebook plans to lead the way for social network advertising. Approximately four months have passed with the release of Facebook Pages and SocialAds and what do advertisers have to say? Well, there were some privacy concerns and laments over social network advertising effectiveness. In order to combat the less-than-expected reach of advertising on Facebook, the company released new case studies and photos yesterday about Pages and the corresponding integration to SocialAds and Beacon.
The Pages team have put together some helpful PDF’s available on their site, ranging from “How to Create a Page: Abbreviated Guide” to “Music: Dave Matthews Band Case Study“. For those who have never used Pages before, the abbreviated guide offers a lot of insightful tips: “Actions that can generate News Feed stories: Positive Associations (Becoming a fan), Wall Posts by user, Review by user, Photo Uploads by user, Video Uploads by user, Interactions with applications and Event RSVPs for attending (may attending.”
The team has also listed a succinct resource for best practices on Facebook Pages here. My favorite takeaway from that list is a note highlighted toward the end: “Facebook experts are all around you: in your family, on your staff, amongst your customers, at your competitors. Don’t hesitate to ask them for advice and to follow their lead when you see a successful strategy at work.”
Have you had success with your Pages?
P.S. You can also become a fan of Burson-Marsteller on our own Page.
