Report From IWEXPO. How Facebook Changes The Rules Of Advertising.


So yesterday at the #iwexpo (Internet World 2010) I had to decide between having lunch or making it to Steven Haines’ keynote aka The Facebook Gig.

Facebook Advertising

Facebook Advertising

After two hours of queuing and starvation I made it and could listen to Steven’s lowdown on how advertisers can engage with their audiences via the Facebook platform. These are the ideas I took away.

1. Forget what you know of advertising. As Steven himself made clear in NMA a couple of months ago, banners and interruption don’t work. Facebook ads are integrated in the user experience with a chameleonic design and “social actions” to not stand out. Go have a play around here.

2. Facebook ads are targeted to bits. Steven mentioned the Johnny Depp case study. An advertiser could target 400 women in the UK with a penchant for Johnny Depp. With the advent of the Like button and Facebook integration, it’s only a matter of time before they have our tastes and hobbies down to excruciating detail. That way advertisers can target effectively and users are not bothered with “Acai Berry” and “Solve your Debt” ads, unless they need/want/like those.

3. (This is mine). Make sure your brand has an earned presence on Facebook too and that you offer something special in the “social actions” of the ads. Take care of the page so it looks good and involve your stakeholders in dialogue, giveaways, samples, prizes, valuable content, etc.

Facebook changes the rules of both Advertising and PR and is here to stay, so start forgetting all you know. If you want to chat with us about Facebook Marketing, email hello@socialmedialibrary.co.uk. We know our likes, pages, comments and bidding and are happy to help.

About The Author

Xavi Izaguirre

Xavi Izaguirre

Xavier Izaguirre joined Social Media Library in November 2009 working as part of the Research Team. Prior to joining Social Media Library, Xavier completed a Masters Degree in Marketing and Communications at Westminster University, London. An active user of Social Media platforms, Xavier is very passionate about new trends in communication and Social Media Marketing contributing towards a number of online campaigns within the Educational Sector.

Follow Xavier on Twitter at @Xavi_izaguirre


Social Media News, Social Media Tips and Tricks, Xavi Izaguirre


A Moot Point? How Social Media Got Us Talking About *down there*


Love your vagina. Not three words that you hear together too often, but currently there are posters all over London tube stations shouting this out. The posters show cute vagina-shaped images and different words that people give to their downstairs area. Or moot; or bajingo; or even great wall of vagina!

Love Your Vagina

Love Your Vagina

This is a really interesting and effective campaign, especially when you realise what it’s actually trying to promote. Original silicone menstrual cup anyone? Not exactly a topic that’s easy to talk about. Instead they have cleverly sucked in young women across the UK to join in the conversation about what they like to call their ‘vaj monster’ – a fun debate for all. After seeing the posters I was intrigued so, along with about five girlfriends, we visited the website, had a giggle at the names, then wondered what a Mooncup was. At first we were all a little grossed out, but cleverly the official Mooncup website is filled with hundreds of testimonials from women ‘just like me’ who initially thought ‘wtf’ but then gave it go.

“We bet you winced when you saw this,” the text says, which is very true. “Everyone does. But there are three reasons why we think it’s important that you get to know it.” You can now follow Mooncup on Twitter and Facebook – with even Lily Allen jumping on the bandwagon.

I’m still not sure what to think – but it’s definitely got me interested! Once again, a great example of using social media to its fullest.

About The Author

Bethany Hoskin

Bethany Hoskin

Bethany Hoskin is a Client Services Manager at Social Media Library, taking care of all our lovely subscribers. She has a Communications degree and previously worked in PR for St John Ambulance, Zing and Republic PR. Whilst she enjoys knowing what’s happening in social media, she may be caught watching the new Sex and the City trailer, or the latest episode of Glee…


Bethany Hoskin, Social Media Case Study


Like It Or Loathe It, Marmite’s Clever Use Of Social Media Merits Love


Marmite have always had particularly good marketing. I can remember their My Mate Marmite campaign from way back when and their more recent love it or hate it campaign (which actually started in the late 90s) has led to the word ‘Marmite’ now being used as an adjective to describe anything that people tend to either really like or really dislike. Brilliant stuff.

Marmite

Marmite

Their latest campaign is also worthy of some praise. It introduces two spoof political parties, the Love Party and the Hate Party, who are battling it out to determine whether we are a nation of Marmite lovers or haters. Using TV, print and online advertising, the brand have also put a good deal of money into their digital and social media campaign. With extensive Facebook, Twitter and Youtube coverage, fans can view election broadcast videos, manifestos and place votes on each party’s online blog (which also allows fans to sign up to mailing lists).

By exploiting the divisive nature of their product (it took them some 94 years to come up with this idea by the way!), Marmite are extremely lucky to have a readymade catch that can be used in a variety of fun, interactive ways that creates talk value from everyone whether you love, hate or are indifferent (I’m fairly sure that actually these people do exist!) to the product. But it’s the way that they exploit this attribute that is so impressive.

By latching on to interest in a current trending topic (the upcoming General Election), the campaign is bound to achieve coverage from the media and interest from a public already tuned in to Election-style media. Also, the quality of their content is high. The campaigns are funny, light-hearted and pitched with the right level of silliness to entertain rather than annoy. The ads are funny and well constructed and the blog is well written and thoughtfully constructed to look genuine. Finally, their use of social media takes the campaign to the next level, providing the public with a place to view each area of the campaign in their own time, to cast votes and to spread the word through links.

The only fly in the ointment could be the campaign’s clash with the BNP’s campaign in this year’s election. Whilst the Hate Party’s ‘party political broadcast’ is clearly a spoof of the BNP’s broadcasts, the association with the party may be one that does them no good in the long run.

About the Author

Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett is a Social Media Analyst for Social Media Library, responsible for developing the content within Social Media Library. Paul lives in a world of blogs, blogs and more blogs, scouring the web and plucking out the juiciest information he finds. Previous to this, he worked as a Music Press Officer. He is also a freelance writer and blogs about stuff that he does here.


Paul Barnett, Social Media Case Study


A Sealed F8? How The Facebook Conference Points The Way To The Future Of The Internet


Yesterday, I watched the F8 livestreamed from Facebook and I can say that all the fuzz and buzz was well justified.

I only can say that Facebook and to a lesser extent, Twitter are going to eat the Internet. As Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg put it, “we’re moving towards a web that is social by default”, meaning that we’re moving towards a web that is Facebook by default.

Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook is going to work on based on using the Open graph, which Zuckerberg calls “personally, and semantically, a set of meaningful connections between people and things,” and social plugins. With these plugins (the most famous being the Like button) you will be able to see what friends have liked or commented on in any article on any site you visit. Also, if you are on Facebook, you will be able to see what off-facebook articles people are reading and commenting on. This is such a turn-on for publishers that I can predict a massively growing trend of magazines, papers and blogs adopting the plugins in the next months. And what if you are a brand? Well, it’s going to be pretty hard to argue that you don’t need to blog about your product, isn’t it?

Likewise,Twitter have released a few apps that allow you to follow tweeps and tweet from any website that installs @anywhere. They want you to see all content online through “Twitter eyes” and make Twitter the epicentre of news diffusion and virality. Let’s see how it goes.

With these new apps both Facebook and Twitter have strung a lot of chords with publishers, since they have shown how users are far more likely to trust a source that friends have approved first. Bret Taylor, ex-CEO of Friendfeed has come up with the Magic Number 5 concept, which shows a dramatic increase of interactivity once you see 5 of your friends engaged onto a site. Having a few trustworthy faces associated with your content using these social plugins will only skyrocket your interactivity and engagement level, so don’t miss out on this.

With a late evening conversation with an SML colleague two sobering questions popped. Are we going to lose our leaders? Will everyone only read and engage with what other people have previously?

In my opinion this social proof and tipping point has always existed. One sees movies that other friends watch, read books that someone has recommended. It’s the spirit of WOM gone mad. Some people are quality leaders and rarely rely on people because they are ahead of the game. These people will always exist. Also, we have to bear in mind that there are areas in which we’re experts and others where we’re novice. Such is life. And now the web is more like life.

The other question is good quality content will find it easier to spread, won’t it? Definitely.

One can argue that Page Rank is the human interpretation made maths formula. The more links to your page, the more prominent your pages will be. However, not everyone owns a site. And also, links can be bought, they can swapped for favours. Add to this all the canonical URLs and keyword strategy and you get a whole lot of obscure science. SEO. And SEO is doomed if, like in a democracy, all votes count the same.

Things will spread based only on how many people like it, all people equally counted. Good content will spread based on its content and engagement levels.

So… are you ready to engage?

About The Author

Xavi Izaguirre

Xavi Izaguirre

Xavier Izaguirre joined Social Media Library in November 2009 working as part of the Research Team. Prior to joining Social Media Library, Xavier completed a Masters Degree in Marketing and Communications at Westminster University, London. An active user of Social Media platforms, Xavier is very passionate about new trends in communication and Social Media Marketing contributing towards a number of online campaigns within the Educational Sector.

Follow Xavier on Twitter at @Xavi_izaguirre


Social Media News, Xavi Izaguirre