[Disclaimer: I'm not saying Facebook doesn't work for business. its about how you work and when you should work Facebook. I'm trying to balance the hype]
I disagree with the "every business MUST be on facebook or be left out" argument and simultaneously with the "there are 400 million people on facebook, get in front of them too".
Firstly, many businesses shouldn't be on Facebook - they aren't going to get people to people referrals. Secondly, the way that people are trying to grow a facebook presence is to pressure contacts they have on twitter (especially), linkedin and their blog. In other words, people they already know. So if you have 100 good network contacts on LinkedIn and twitter, do you really want them to follow you on Facebook?
I use [used to] facebook to stay in touch with friends and family. I have friends from school, where I grew up, college, places I've worked and people I've met along the way. I don't want to bore them with updates from my accountant, contract cleaning company, favourite dvd manufacturer.
Here's the problem: I feel that businesses who want me to "be a Fan" are pressuring me by way of using our connection to help them promote their business. Which means that I now get their updates on twitter, LinkedIn and on Facebook. It also means that people I'm friends with probably think I shop online too much
Secondly, they're people I already know and they already know - because its the twitter and linkedin and blog reading crowd. So they haven't raised their profile. But they've done something big - they've asked people to let them into their private lives without giving anything back.
Paying it forward is an important part of successful social media. Asking people you know to fan you so they get 500 followers is nothing short of spam - and 500 people with an average CTR rate of 1.5% (Google told me this week that this was "good" although I disagree) and a CPA rate of probably the same, that means less than 10 sales. For all that trust and use of people's personal time.
Where is the measurement of brand damage? I.E.: God, following that organic wheelie bin crowd from Donegal was a nightmare, what else will I have to do for them ????
For people who espouse the 400 million users on facebook = 400 million possible customers and that catchy youtube video - well 2 billion people speak English, a further 5 billion people have telephones. Having both doesn't give you 5 billion potential customers - its nonsense.
A facebook fan page will not put you in front of a million people. Diet Coke's fan page, btw, has less than 290k (August, 2010) but Coke is the most recognised word on the planet.
If you wanted to get an ad in front of 400 million people on Facebook - then you would have to advertise. And advertising to 400 million people ain't cheap. I estimate that with an average CPC of €0.50 that this would cost €200million. But you'd be facing an average CTR of less than 1% - so let's call it €2mln. But thats 2 million people.
I disagree with the "every business MUST be on facebook or be left out" argument and simultaneously with the "there are 400 million people on facebook, get in front of them too".
Firstly, many businesses shouldn't be on Facebook - they aren't going to get people to people referrals. Secondly, the way that people are trying to grow a facebook presence is to pressure contacts they have on twitter (especially), linkedin and their blog. In other words, people they already know. So if you have 100 good network contacts on LinkedIn and twitter, do you really want them to follow you on Facebook?
I use [used to] facebook to stay in touch with friends and family. I have friends from school, where I grew up, college, places I've worked and people I've met along the way. I don't want to bore them with updates from my accountant, contract cleaning company, favourite dvd manufacturer.
Here's the problem: I feel that businesses who want me to "be a Fan" are pressuring me by way of using our connection to help them promote their business. Which means that I now get their updates on twitter, LinkedIn and on Facebook. It also means that people I'm friends with probably think I shop online too much
Secondly, they're people I already know and they already know - because its the twitter and linkedin and blog reading crowd. So they haven't raised their profile. But they've done something big - they've asked people to let them into their private lives without giving anything back.
Paying it forward is an important part of successful social media. Asking people you know to fan you so they get 500 followers is nothing short of spam - and 500 people with an average CTR rate of 1.5% (Google told me this week that this was "good" although I disagree) and a CPA rate of probably the same, that means less than 10 sales. For all that trust and use of people's personal time.
Where is the measurement of brand damage? I.E.: God, following that organic wheelie bin crowd from Donegal was a nightmare, what else will I have to do for them ????
For people who espouse the 400 million users on facebook = 400 million possible customers and that catchy youtube video - well 2 billion people speak English, a further 5 billion people have telephones. Having both doesn't give you 5 billion potential customers - its nonsense.
A facebook fan page will not put you in front of a million people. Diet Coke's fan page, btw, has less than 290k (August, 2010) but Coke is the most recognised word on the planet.
If you wanted to get an ad in front of 400 million people on Facebook - then you would have to advertise. And advertising to 400 million people ain't cheap. I estimate that with an average CPC of €0.50 that this would cost €200million. But you'd be facing an average CTR of less than 1% - so let's call it €2mln. But thats 2 million people.
