Search Marketing Sage

The next panel of the day was the Facebook Marketing panel, featuring Marty Weintraub of Aimclear, Dennis Yu of BlitzLocal, Alison Driscoll (no relation) of Zipcar, and Brian Carter of BrianCarterYeah.com.

Brian Carter

Brian was first up. I’ve seen him speak before, and it’s always entertaining. He showed how you can target demographically via Facebook, showing that there are over 14,500 people who like “clapping” in the US — great market for The Clapper!

He views Facebook like TV and radio. 60% of Internet users are on Facebook and 50% of Americans are on Facebook. How do you sell the dream? When you sell a product or service, you might sell the features. But better is selling the benefits and even better is selling the dream.  People are looking for luxury, awe, connection, a sense of belonging. With Facebook, you can own your audience. You can talk to your fans over and over and over.

Brian provided some basic guidelines for audience size. Your fan base should be:

• 10-20% of the local populations
• 10x as many custoemrs as you want
• 10x the size of your email list

He said there are four stages of Facebook marketing:

• build a fan page
• build the audience
• engage that audience
• get more business

Get as many of your fans to interact as you can. 1% feedback lets 70% of your fans see your posts. Click through rate on Facebook is really good if it’s 3%.

Alison Driscoll

Alison was up next and shared tips on Facebook, using Buffy the Vampire Slayer analogies:

1. Give them what they want.
2. Be predictable.
   Pick a pattern and stick with it. For instance, if you have contests, pick one day of the week for contests.
3. Don’t push persuasion.
   Don’t be heavy handed in persuasion. Stay subtle. Have great content.
4. Keep spinoffs simple.
   Be careful… don’t dilute your brand.
5. Keep your options open.
   You want to cross-promote your content. Don’t just rely on Facebook.
6. Go with the flow.
   Facebook should be fun. Encourage fans to say things on your page.
7. Imitation is flattery.
   Keep your cool with copycats. It means someone likes you and pays attention to what you’re doing.  Do what you’re going to do — don’t freak out. They might be brand evangelists.
8. Know when to let go.
   See what works and if it doesn’t work, drop it. She used the example of the recent Gap logo change. Test things on Facebook and get feedback. Don’t be afraid to stop something that isn’t working, like in the Gap example.

Dennis Yu

Next up was Dennis Yu.  Facebook has huge reach. The average Facebook user has 130 friends. But, the average Facebook user that “likes” pages is 310 friends.

He reviewed the biggest mistakes companies make in Facebook:

1. Keep users inside of Facebook.
2. Not rotating ads regularly. Otherwise your CTR will fall and cost will increase.
3. Selling not engaging. Don’t just show your own company comments. Allow for reviews, comments, scoring, etc.
4. No reveal tab.
5. Not letting fans talk.
6. Targeting keywords, not identity. Facebook is who you are, not what you search.
7. Not growing fans from site.
8. Not using the Facebook login system on your site.
9. Not responding to angry customers. It’s like not answering the phone in a very public way.
10. Not empowering super fans.
11. Not using game dynamics.
12. Not using responder demographics. As your CTR slides down, your cost per click goes up.

Marty Weintraub

Last up was Marty who covered radical intelligence and targeting hacks for Facebook. Marty was showing how you can target so much more than just location — Facebook allows for deeper targeting like language, gender, etc.

Marty showed some really amusing “likes” that you can target in Facebook. Crazy!!