Bryan: My friends' WOM - The PR Key

I agree with Nick and don’t think Facebook is necessarily better than the marketing venues already out there. Anyone who does is probably inexperienced or desperate for a silver bullet. But Facebook is where a lot of the audience is now spending their time, making it the place to be as a public relations professional even if Facebook becomes a fad.

Ashleigh’s commented link from Marcom (2010) echoes my user habits: ‘‘Facebook is solidifying its position as not only your primary social network, it’s also emerging as a central hub for your attention, updates, news, promotions, and enlightenment.’

And, as Belle’s linked Web Strategy Matrix chart illustrates, Facebook is kicking butt at continuing to grab more and more market share with additional uses and applications. For that reason, Nick, I don’t think it is saturated. 1.5 million companies is a drop in the bucket compared to 300-400 million consistently expanding users.

The problem, Nick, is more of what you presented in the conversation earlier, how to weed out the junk ‘friends’ and find the people who really want to hear our message. Marken (2008) writes in Public Relations Quarterly that ‘everyone who wants… (our services) is important’. Yet, I’m not sure I buy that.

As our blogs and a few comments have consistently pointed out, we don’t really know who these people are. Simonson (2008, quoting Suden 2003), puts it best when he writes that they ‘type oneself into being.’ The online world is one of ideals, where its inhabitants portray themselves as they want to be seen.

In the virtual gaming sense that could mean full on avatars, but on Facebook I think it just means self editing. I for example try to avoid joining political pages unless they’re hosted by a close friend. So a potential public relations person can’t really get a true sense of my affiliations.

The key again is knowing me through my friends. Chantelle, Rebecca, and Ashleigh in her comments sighted some good suggestions for drawing people in but the statement about finding out who has the most influence in a network of friends is what I find most powerful.

I agree with Belle that WOM can’t be disruptive. Even in the onground world, if a friend suggests an affiliation that doesn’t jive with your viewset, you ignore it or get annoyed at their insistence. Facebook is, as I’ve insinuated before, simply a community in cyberspace with almost the same social rules.

Facebook takes us back to the origins of direct marketing when we had to knock on doors, shake hands, and even kiss babies. Then, the most powerful bonding agent was pier opinion. The same seems to hold true on Facebook. Yes ,Belle, we do join pages because our friends have.

Rebecca is right, like the Internet when it first went commercial, this technology is a communication tool not a new way of doing business. And if you want to swim with the fishes you got to get in the water. So what do you think, Nick, has the most powerful marketing tool of WOM from us convinced you to get involved?


References

Marken, G. A. (2008). The New Communications Tools... Listening, Helping. Public Relations Quarterly, 52(3), 21.

Simonson, M. (2008). Will you be my friend. Distance Learning, 5(2), 99-100.

Rebecca: Show me the money!

Okay Nick, so you’re looking for the cold hard facts, dollars and cents benefits. This form of marketing is so new that I don’t know if any companies can yet provide the ROI of their pages. But, I again stress the fact that you get out what you put in. If you do your home work, understand your target audience and take the time to maintain your page you will see benefits, but if you simply create a page because it seems like the thing to do and then ignore it you wont see any benefit at all.

Mashable.com is a website on social media and it suggests the 5 best corporate Facebook pages are run by Pringles, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Adidas and Red Bull. I checked them out and I tend to agree with all but Adidas, which I didn’t enjoy in comparison to the others. I think the key with each of these pages is that they speak directly to their target audience and know what will bring consumers back to the page. Red Bull was particularly interesting. Apparently they have a phone number on their cans which you can call and leave a message on their answering machine. They then have a section on their page called Drunkish Dials where you can listen to some of the messages that have been left. Very interactive!

I also found an interview with Dan Austin and Lauren Hefferon, founder and director of Ciclismo Classico a bicycle vacation company. They spoke about the benefits their company has experienced since joining Facebook. The full article can be found at http://www.i-newswire.com/two-leading-adventure-travel-companies/13921 but I’ll briefly outline some of their experiences.

They report “that within a week on Facebook their fan following grew by over 300 percent… therefore boosting our brand awareness. We are seeing five to six percent growth in followers each day and close to 300 percent in the last week alone… It’s not so much a marketing tool as it is a communication tool. I keep coming back to the fact that conventional websites are one-dimensional; with Facebook it’s all three-dimensional.” As a result of Facebook they have seen an increase in hits to their website and believe that through posts they have come to better understand what their guests like, dislike and want. They have also detected which experiences guests find the most magical and have decided to shift future marketing onto these experiences.

So Nick I think it’s about time you find out for yourself. Join Facebook, check out the sites I mentioned above along with McDonald’s and Nike which I think have amazing pages. Start searching out some of you favourite or least favourite companies. Try Crayola Crayons which is a great example of what not to do. What do you think works and what doesn’t? Which pages would you go back and revisit regularly?

Nick: confused

Belle, it is an interesting comparison isn't it. As Owyang says the opportunities are clearly there but marketers are confused about how to proceed with Facebook. This more or less summarises my point. Facebook certainly offers opportunities to reach the market but like any other medium (print, television, radio included) the question really is how and with what message to engage and cut through?

I was talking to a friend yesterday who works for a market research company. She mentioned that a client of theirs had recently thrown money at an Iphone App without conducting any prior research. The marketing/creative team had come up with a 'gimmicky' idea to engage the market and they were convinced it was going to work because it utilised the hottest new media and it was a nice idea. It has flopped horribly. These are the stories we don't hear about because no one involved wants to talk about them. They get swept under the carpet but they happen all the time...

So many marketers are after the 'main chance'. They want media glory so they roll the dice without really asking the right questions about what they are doing and why. I would be very surprised if we couldn't put many Facebook marketing initiatives over the last few years very much in this category. This doesn't mean there hasn't been success stories and that companies cannot and will not get smarter but I have a feeling many will move on to the next new media craze just as the example above illustrates rather than really try to work out how to properly market on Facebook.

I look forward to being proven wrong and if the growth projections/possibilities Owyang suggests are realised I may well be!

Belle - Blogs vs other social media

I thought this table from Jeremiah Owyang - http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/02/11/matrix-buzz-vs-facebook-vs-myspace-vs-twitter-feb-2009/ - is really helpful considering our conversations about how new web 2.0 technologies can be used by marketing professionals, particularly in light of Nicks questions about Facebooks effectiveness in relation to other mediums. (sorry i would have posted it on here but couldnt seem to get it to copy over in the table format)

Nick: The ship has sailed

I just want to point out that I am not arguing that companies should not use facebook to market themselves. The point I am asking is how useful is it and what are the returns on investment?

There has been this feeling around the industry that facebook is an elixir that will provide a miracle cure to the marketing problem. I want to take this to task. I do not think this is true. I am happy for companies to adopt Facebook as one part of their IMC mix but I cannot see that Facebook is going to provide most companies with a great ROI and until I do I will remain sceptical. As far as I am concerned you still need a campaign (media or viral) in order to drive people to the facebook page just like you do a product website or a campaign microsite. How is it different? People can blog about companies and have their say on a thousand different websites and companies can set up blogs for feedback on their own sites if they are desperate to and I get emails from companies that I choose to be on the mailing list for all the time. Why is it any better through Facebook?

Chantelle the large numbers you mention and the constant growth proves the problem. Facebook is already saturated. There are 1.5 million companies on Facebook. Would you like 1.5 million companies bugging you to be their friend? Of course not. How do they cut through to you? How do they identify if you are a customer and how do they get to you with appropriate messages if you are? These are exactly the same questions marketers ask in any other medium.

I want to know how facebook is different to or better than any other web-based medium that provides information? I am not saying don't use it I just don't understand how it is a better way to approach customers and potential customers than any other current method?

Chantelle: Would it be risky not to use it & how do we use it effectively?

The Use of Facebook

Nick, I can see value in your argument that we need to flip that idea of ‘What’s in it for me’ and look at what’s in it for the company – however based on the constant growth of Facebook I worry about the company's loss in not being involved.

Just like consumers have come to assume and expect a web site presence from brands and services I would suggest they will and are coming to presume and expect a Facebook presence from them. Even the other night watching the start of “Hey Hey its Saturday” the host stumbled over references to Twitter and their new webpage ending with the afterthought of “and of course we are on Facebook”.

I want to build on Bryan’s statement that the question of whether or not PR reps should use Facebook is moot. I would argue that Facebook will continue to grow and that although its original purpose was not for commercial opportunists, it is a medium ripe for this activity and in turn will be used as such.

Statistics Facebook itself has released, (although for this reason are limited in their use) reveal the immense possibilities it offers to marketers. Consider:

• More than 400 million active users

• 50% of these active users log on to Facebook in any given day

• More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week (important when considering word of mouth)

• More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook

• More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day

• Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans

• Average user has 130 friends on the site

• Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook

• Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month (important when considering word of mouth)

• Average user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month

• Average user is a member of 13 groups

In the article sent to us from Sydney Morning Herald, Leon Gettler notes that a Nielsen survey this year found that people now spend seven hours a month on Facebook. (Side note - Even the Nielsen company who conducted this survey have a Facebook presence!)

Based on this I would argue that there is greater risk and consequence in not being involved in Facebook. Companies who are not becoming involved are likely to find themselves left behind. In turn I suggest that Facebook is becoming a necessary part the broader IMC strategy for brands, services and products.

Online WOM

What we seem to agree on is Facebook as a forum for information sharing. Part of this is the Word of Mouth marketing it facilitates. In the consumer marketplace you have little control over who consumes or talks about your product (for example, on Facebook it may backfire for Coco Channel not to accept a friend request but in the real world Coco Channel can’t stop someone they would not want to be affiliated with wearing Coco Channel and telling others about it). This is not much different to the issue raised about an unwanted brand ‘friend’ or people talking about a product on each other’s or on the brand page. At least on the brand page it can be monitored and responded to.

Although not mentioning Facebook directly Riegner (2007) outlines that online rants, raves, comments, and reviews are having an impact on purchase decisions. Importantly Riegner outlines that while consumers find emotional and practical benefits in participating in online discussions the ratio of people who read blogs to people who actually publish roughly reflects an 80/20 rule, with 80 % consuming what 20% write. This reveals is an important point to consider for companies looking to get involved in Facebook and an essential part of facilitating verbal WOM around a product: the identification and use of influential people within a network. In our week one reading Kotler, Brown, Adam, Burton and Armstrong (2007) assert that favourable WOM can best be achieved through targeting opinion leaders and those who have the greatest impact on the spread of WOM in their particular category and supplying them with the product on attractive terms or educating them so they can inform others. Information a company can get through using Facebook would make the identification of these influential individuals easier.

How to use Facebook effectively then? Gimmicks and the way forward

I agree Nick that some of the aforementioned Facebook ‘initiatives’ are as you say ‘gimmicky’ and that there is danger in marketers not thinking through their presence on Facebook in their desire to “ just to jump on the bandwagon”. The ‘gimicks’ mentioned were simply ideas to stimulate interest and get consumers to affiliate themselves with the pages of these products. They are by not by any means what I suggesting as a rule nor things I have or would get involved in myself.

I would however suggest that our attention should focus on procedures and guidelines for companies to effectively use Facebook instead of whether or not to use Facebook. Gettler outlines that some of the world’s leading companies have developed social media policies incorporating Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn into their marketing and business strategies, which in ways forces other smaller companies to replicate this. He states that these policies help these companies “monitor what is said about them online so they can deal with problems quickly and creating communities that share information and increase innovation”.

Building on Rebecca’s provided list of ways to use Facebook professionally, some basic commonsense rules Gettler mentions from Coca-Cola’s social media policy are:

• disclose your affiliation with the company;

• keep records;

• when in doubt, don't post;

• give credit where credit is due;

• don't violate others' rights; be responsible;

• keep in mind that local posts can have a global significance;

• and try to remember that anything posted on the internet is permanent.

Also mentioned is the recognition on the pages of prior company problems like product recalls and PR crises, under the idea that if the company doesn’t mention it and spin it positively, someone else will and it may not be as pleasant.

Other important considerations include who will be responsible for the Facebook presence within the organisation and who will monitor and respond feedback. Brand specific guidelines will need to be considered, as the issues that arise will be category specific as well as generic.

Currently UWS are organising a forum with staff about the effective use of Facebook and creating University wide procedures from this discussion. This will not only be for the UWS main Facebook page but for course and unit pages that can and have been created across the university.

Prior meetings about the use of social media have been rife with social media management issues, debating how to approach different scenarios. Like you mention Nick – what happens if people we don't want to join – join? What if they make negative remarks? Can we delete negative or wrong posts about the university? Or will this make us look worse? If we don't delete these comments will it damage the universities reputation? All sound too hard… well it is … but not once has the option to remove our Facebook presence come up because we recognise that as much of a pain that it is – we need a to incorporate it into our broader marketing strategy as it is a forum that our students and potential students understand and will use. It’s also understood that whatever procedures that are agreed upon will need to be fluid to address the constantly changing terrain.

So I would be interested hear what the rest of you think… are the risks greater risks in PR’s not being involved? And what other ways can PR’s effectively use Facebook?

www.Facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Reigner, C (2007) Word of Mouth on the Web: The Impact of Web 2.0 on Consumer

Purchase Decisions. Journal of Advertising Research 47 (4)

Rebecca: Yes, I want you to be my Facebook Friend

I’d like to start by addressing a few comments made in some of the previous postings.

Nick, in your brand and social media post you made the comment that formulaic websites stifle the imagination and creativity of communications. I can not disagree more strongly with this point. This formula is precisely what makes the internet a useful mode of communication. If you consider psychology’s schema theory which explains that we all create schemata surrounding nearly every aspect of our daily lives to help us quickly make sense of the world around us. Without it we would need to completely analyse every aspect of every situation we encountered to understand it. Instead, we have schemata which allow us to assume information and predict outcomes even when encountering new situations.

This is why consistent frameworks are needed online. Without it communication would be cluttered and difficult. Imagine trying to find information on a website that didn’t follow the typical webpage design. It would be impossible. Every time you visited a new site you’d have to recreate the wheel, searching the entire page to find what you were looking for. It would be a very time consuming and frustrating experience.

However Nick, I did find your point about what a company should do when people they don’t want associated with their brand begin to associate themselves with it. This is a valid point that should be considered by organizations. The answer to and repercussions of this problem are probably different for every organization. I honestly don’t know how I’d begin to address it, a lot of research would be needed. I do see an issue resemblance to what fashion designers deal with. Their products are frequently reproduced allowing people to associate themselves with the brand even though the product was not intended for them. I would be interested to learn how these companies deal with this problem.

Belle raised several issues surrounding the belief that Facebook was still too one-sided and created a time delay of messages. I tend to disagree and believe that like any form of social media you get out what you put in. Similar to other forms of marketing an individual can choose to ignore a message at any point. You can’t spoon feed a consumer but honestly Facebook is almost as close as I think you can get. If a consumer chooses they are at most one click away from receiving your message instantly if it doesn’t already appear in their home feed. That’s pretty good timing. Also all information is available to consumers and they can easily access it whenever they want. There isn’t the risk of ware-out effects or active avoidance that other forms of communications have and which can cause negative feelings towards the brand.

Chantelle, you raised several points at the end of your last post regarding the effects of associating ones self with various brands or pages. I don’t feel that my pages particularly reflect my personality but this is because I haven’t actively searched out any of these pages, I’ve simply added pages that I thought were interesting when friends recommended them to me.

However, this got me to thinking about the potential benefits of joining an organizations page. I will soon be attempting to enter the Canadian job market, not an easy feat. What better way to get information on a company, what they stand for and how they operate, then from their daily updates on their Facebook page. It will also demonstrate to what extent a company values communications and is open to modern media, these are exactly the type of companies I’d like to work for.

So I began searching for several organizations that I have interest in applying to and found most of them did have pages, so I joined them. From the companies perspective this is also a great place to find potential talent. If an individual takes the time to join and follow your Facebook page they are likely to be a committed employee. Plus, telling a potential employer that you are a member of their Facebook page is definitely a way to stand out in an interview and they can easily check you out online which is good because you’ve tailored your page to your positive qualities. So from this perspective I would definitely want a company to be my Facebook friend.

Using Facebook can also be a great way for small businesses to connect with consumers almost for free. But there are risks. WebWorkerDaily provides some great tips in their article 12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/07/24/12-ways-to-use-facebook-professionally/.

Their recommendation:
1. Think of it like personalizing your desk
2. Look for old co-workers and current connections
3. Add friends selectively
4. Add apps selectively
5. Edit your news feed preferences
6. Edit your profile and security settings
7. Incorporate other social media tools you are already using into your profile
8. Join groups related to your business interests
9. Limit your time wasted on Facebook
10. Be philanthropic
11. Ask questions
12. Look for events

I think these are great tips for professional, business and personal Facebook use.

Bryan: Our real concern

"I Facebooked Your Mom".

This just made me laugh....

Bryan: Commercialization of Socialization

The illustration to the right breaks down Facebook use in 2007, borrowed from oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2007/09/.

An admittedly limited Google search turned up no recent statistics with the same level of detail as the image from OEDB. But assuming I’m an average user of Facebook, it is fare to assume these numbers still hold true. My habits haven’t deviated much from when I joined in 2007.

What I find most interesting about this image is that users tend to come to Facebook to observe their friends and escape through applications. Participating in groups and network affiliations is secondary. That seems to support Nick and Belle’s assumption that Facebook wasn’t intended as a commercial portal.

But, things change, and like anywhere prey gathers, the predators will come. As a once professional sales person, I can attest to that fact. We used to operate under the arms-length theory: anyone who got within an arms length of us, we’d attempt to sell (or at least market).

It sounds like a fly in our web perspective but, when business is a numbers game, it works. And frankly, business is one of the things that makes the world go round. I suspect that’s why Zuckerberg changed Facebook’s privacy policy. He sees a profitable trend.

And, let’s remember, the web may have been founded on the concept of a free exchange of information, but the commercial model was predicated on the late 90s tech bubble concept of grow to sell yourself. It seems to me that Facebook is now just combining the two.

And although newer internet commerce models may no longer focus on the same type of exit strategy, the end game for Zuckerberg has probably always been profit. He’s just taking a trend he views in his younger majority of members and forcing the rest of us into it.

In a way, this is the Steve Jobs style of business. Upon his return to head Apple, the new release of their now extremely successful brand neglected to include a disk drive at a time when everyone was used to have one built into their machine.

Jobs countered critic complaints with the notion that audiences can be trained. Within a short time, consumers learned to exist without disk drives, opening up a new market for expansion drives and external memory.

Zuckerberg believes his majority audience doesn’t care about privacy and whether commercial language enters their personal pages. The rest of us will just have to follow suit in the absence of any choice. I believe Zuckerberg will successfully affect the audience and change the marketplace.

The question of whether or not PR reps should use Facebook is moot; it’s already started and will continue to do so. Call me a cynic but I suspect, Belle, that Facebook’s banning of self-commercialization is a way of tempering that change.

As I mentioned earlier, us users who don’t fall into the 18-25 age bracket still make up 41 percent of those 300 million members. Zuckerberg probably doesn’t want to burn us out on the idea before he can sign profitable deals with large public relations/marketing firms.

Those agreements penned with Google and Bing for example may be free but a subsequent deal with Twitter has Facebook posts being exchanged for a fee. It’s my unsubstantiated opinion that Zuckerberg was probably aiming for such profits when he signed the free contracts.

The focus now needs to be on how the rest of us communicators can profit also.

References:

Anonymous. (2010). Facebook founder: Online privacy not a “social norm”. Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, 59(2), 48-49.

Elmore, B. (2009). Social networking strategies. Baylor Business Review, 28(1), 25-27.

Belle - Consumer space or Social space

One of the fundamental arguments that I think is coming up from these discussions and really needs to be addressed is should Facebook actually even be considered as a consumer space? As each one of the stories as to why we signed up (or wont sign up) highlights, Facebook is conceived as a social space where a lot of the real world social politics still apply. As such Facebook is not necessarily a sphere where consumer allegiances are welcome. I know when i signed on i was looking to find out how my friends were that live on the other side of the world and see how their kids are growing, not their product affiliations!

So do you think that attempting to engage with consumers via Facebook is actually going against the ethos of Facebook? While I can definately see validation in the argument that we often engage in product related conversations with friends offline so can therefore expect that to also happen online, I think there is a big difference between seeking that information from a friend and having a brand as a 'friend' where your only conversation would ever be about a product.

It is obvious that there is opposition to the idea that Facebook should be used as a commercial space by the fact that Facebook has recently banned conducting any giveaways or promotions through the page status updates (Courtney, P 2009). It seems that although Facebook users are happy to affiliate themselves with products via fan pages and even discuss products on their own profile pages they did not want their news feed to be cluttered with promotional material. I dont know about you guys but those constant Farmville updates that clutter up my news feed drive me INSANE! I can only imagine how i would feel about constantly seeing more product information rather then updates on what my actual human friends are doing!

I think the real obstacle that marketers face, and that some arent dealing with particularly well, is how to infultrate the network with the least amount of disruption to the social order. I think the censorship example above highlights that social networking sites can only act as a conduit for a companies WOM if their messages are not pushy, are seen as authentic and if they are not seen to impact on the fundamental objectives of the network.

I think that Chantelle and Nicks discussion about identifying with a brand is also really interesting, especially when we think about Facebook as a social rather then a consumer space. The question i really want to ask from that is do we really need brands in order to create an online identity, particularly in a forum that is by nature an extention of our offline community? Are the users of Facebook actually thinking about the identity implications of what brands they add as a friend or are they just looking for free stuff? Are we actually looking at the brands that our Facebook peers are affiliated with and joining the same communities because we aspire to be like them or is that info just getting lost in the overloaded news feed? Is our Facebook identity really something that a marketer can count on as a truthful indication of our possible consumer tendancies?

Reference:
Courtney, Patrick (2009) Marketing On Facebook Grows Up (Ask Your Lawyer!),http://www.socialmediaplayground.com/social-media/marketing-on-facebook-grows-up-ask-your-lawyer/2009/09/21/]

Nick: What's in it for them?

I have a great aversion to gimmicks Chantelle in any form of promotion and advertising - Facebook included. I worry that many of the engagement or "what is in it for me?" initiatives we see are bordering on being gimmicky. I don't see an initiative as brand building if people are essentially being bribed to become a 'friend' to engage with a product. If the initiative also says something meaningful about the product and company and what it stands for such as your Valentines day examples (although this too could verge on gimmicky if it is a company's cynical attempt to improve triple bottom line reporting) then I can certainly see the merits. However, this is something that is not done well in most advertising and I worry that Facebook will be another medium for the most part delivering exactly the same advertising and promotional tripe as any other.

I think Rebecca's example of the friend with the company who shares the profits with her jewelery-makers is a good example of an brand initiative not a gimmicky initiative but it is fundamental to, and embedded in, the company's business model - sadly, most initiatives are simply attempts devised only to draw the consumer in and, as you suggest, the question becomes whether there is any substance behind it and therefore a reason to go back until the next gimmick comes along.

Bryan and I were just on the phone discussing the flip-side of the argument of "what is in it for me?" when you blogged. The question is 'what is in it for the marketer/company' in the relationship as well? I have been reading a bit about 'Brand Relationships' - a relatively hot buzz term in branding - and obviously 'friendship' and 'relationship' goes together hand in hand. However Schultz, Barnes, Schultz and Azzaro in their book Building Customer - Brand Relationships spend a lot of time discussing not only whether the brand is right for the customer but questioning if the customer is right for the brand before they look to develop a relationship.

This is a pretty healthy way to think about developing brand through social media and WOM because it makes you as the marketer think of the flip-side in a scenario such as the person who brands themselves in effect by trying to establish associations with Coco Chanel on their personal web page, which is, they may not be the type of person Coco Chanel wants as a WOM brand champion. How do you restrict that from happening? You could un-friend the unwanted champion but that could create a media firestorm that might work out in your favour or it could seriously backfire.... So we get back to the risk question I mentioned in my previous blog and ask how far are marketers and PR companies prepared to go.

Looking at the 'what's in it for the company?' is also healthy for the marketer because it suggests a longer term view of brand in 'initiative' (to borrow your term Chantelle) planning. So if a gimmick will attract people to the Facebook page as the marketer you would then ask, ok, if I am to spend X dollars is it likely to deliver a Y return on investment in terms of sales either through direct consumer action (actual purchasing) or through the development of brand equity over time (brownie points stored in a consumers mind to improve likelihood of a purchase at some later date)?

These are the sorts of questions marketers are not asking themselves when they push the button on the next latest idea (gimmick) just to jump on the bandwagon and make sure they don't miss out on that next big thing.

One way I can see Facebook really helping brand relationship marketers is through information gathering - if people are free and easy with their privacy then researchers can tap into detailed information that could help them to decide who they want to form brand relationships.However you would have to question whether this is in the spirit of the medium. As Bryan suggested in his last blog Mark Zuckerberg would probably say it is (with the dollar signs flashing before his eyes) but would the Facebook users?

Would love to get your thoughts guys...

Chantelle: Be your friend? What’s in it for me?

I sympathise with the school yard concerns you initially mentioned Nick, however I believe it is the friends that you have that determine your experience using Facebook. I think this is important for marketers to keep in mind. Bryan I understand your intolerance with marketing through Facebook and I think it is safe to say you are not alone in your desire to avoid it or only experience it through the receipt of such messages being through friends (online Word of Mouth). In saying this, I believe the key to marketers getting consumers to become friends with their brand or product on Facebook may be in addressing a fundamental consumer question: What is in it for me?

If being a friend with an brand or product on Facebook means being at the forefront of getting information, special deals and invitations to events the brand are holding – the idea of befriending a brand becomes more appealing. This also addresses Nick’s second question – the hook or reason to visit the site. If status updates for the brand are interesting, interactive and perhaps exclusive, like a clothes brand releasing its new line at a certain venue or a TV show revealing a hint to an upcoming storyline, it will give the friends of the brand reasons to continually revisit the site.

While I recognise Bryan’s argument that creativity means fitting an idea into a limited framework, there is successful ways of doing this. Like James Boag who relates to his target constituent, other companies have found innovative ways to communicate with their friends. An article on http://www.mediaverso.com/ outlines some of these creative Facebook marketing campaigns.

· Connecting a Facebook social game into strategy. Microsoft’s Bing search engine attempted this through the popular Facebook game FarmVille. If a user became a fan of Bing’s Facebook page (by clicking on a Bing advertisement located on the bottom of the FarmVille landing page) they would receive FarmVille cash. Bing’s Facebook page went from 100,000 to 500.000 users in one day. The question then becomes how to get consumers to keep accessing the Bing page after this.
· Appeal to altruism. On Valentine’s day Target retail stores gave away one million dollars to a charity chosen by their Facebook fans. They used a real time graph on their Facebook page to see how the charities competed with each another. Kellogs launched a similar initiative.

· Use Facebook to give consumers access to freebies. Jamacia’s biggest cellular phone company Digicel offered free phone credit and handsets through their Facebook page. They placed a code on their page and the first person who dialed the code won free phone credit or handset.

· Connect your page with real life events and activities. Red Bull’s Facebook page has a game called the Red Bull Stash, where people can search for cases of Red Bull that have been hidden all over the country. This American based game required entering a zip code to get clues to the stash location in a particular city. The people who found the stash in each city would then be on their way to winning an unmentioned grand prize.

Another example used in the article is Domino’s pizza. Using Facebook they launched “The Pizza Turnaround” where they listened to customer complaints and then acted upon them. They then put up commercials with people telling Domino’s how to improve their pizza and how Dominoes have taken their feedback into consideration. This strategy works in line with research that suggests the strongest most influential word of mouth is caused when dissatisfied customers are turned around by extraordinary responses to their expression of dissatisfaction (Silverman, 2001; Allsop et al, 2007).

The Word Of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) suggest that a constructive ways to get people talking about your brand is through transparent conversation & information sharing with consumers on blogs or other forums. Facebook is a perfect mechanism for other this and other WOMMA recommendations such as co-creation - involving consumers in marketing strategy (for example by allowing them to create commercials).

Another element of ‘what’s in it for me’ comes from Nick and Rebecca’s arguments about brand creation and protection. In line with Rebecca’s argument about protecting our own brand, it can be argued that who an individual is friends with or fans of brand wise can be used to define their personality. You are sending a completely different message about yourself if you are friends with ‘Coco Channel’ as opposed to say the ‘Penrith Panthers’. If your brand successfully responds to its target audience and builds upon its needs, it can mean that your consumers will want its friendship on Facebook as part of creating their Facebook identity.

So of those Facebook users – who are you friends with brand wise and what do you think that says about you? Have you found yourself not adding a brand as a friend because you don’t want to be affiliated with what it represents? Have you judged other people for being friends with certain brands? I can’t really talk as the only brand friend I have is UWS because of work... but that’s a blog for another time.

Allsop, D.T., Basset, B.R. & Hoskins, J.A. (2007). Word-of-Mouth Research: Principles and Applications. Journal of Advertising Research, 47 (4): 398-411
Silverman, G. (2001). The Power of Word of Mouth. Direct Marketing, 64 (5): 47-52
WOMMA, Word of Mouth Marketing Association. (2007). An Introduction to WOM Marketing with definitions. Accessed April 2, 2010 http://womma.org/wom101/
http://www.mediaverso.com/the-best-new-facebook-marketing-campaigns-in-2010.html

Belle: Brands on Facebook - who are we really talking to

The ultimate goal of any communications strategy is to reach the target audience with the right message at the best possible time (Wells,W, Spence-Stone, R., Mariatry S. Burnett, J. 2008). I think this is a great statement to look at when thinking about Facebook as a medium for a company to use for PR as it raises some really interesting questions, some of which have already been discussed, about who companies should be trying to reach, how they should do it (aka. engagement) and the timing at which to do so.

As Nick mentioned in his Brand and Social Media post one of the most interestng things for me about Facebook is how it actually proposes to provide an avenue to reach potential consumers. As I see it the use of Facebook as an avenue to reach your target audience is actually quite questionable as I think its complex social makeup actually make it impossible to really put a value on this or rely on it with any certainty. Yes, arguably if you are able to find one person who likes your product then chances are that someone else in their Facebook community is likely to share a common interest however because Facebook communities are built on an accumulation of real world communities, such as family, friends, workmates, school groups, sporting groups etc, and not just those based on a common interest, I don't actually think it is a particularly reliable way of reaching your target audience. Unlike other social media avenues, such as blogs or other online communities, members of Facebook communities often have no real link beside the person that resides in all of them. It seems like an aweful lot of emphasis to be putting on one person to be a voice for your brand.

Also, the use of Facebook so far still seems to be relatively one sided when it comes to initiating the conversation. It still appears that either you or another member of Facebook (who then tells you) has to go looking for the brand, just as they would a website, in order to get the informations. So then the questions becomes, how do you actually find your target market and initiate a conversation when Facebook only really provides Word Of Mouth as the method to transmit information to other users.

I think Facebook also presents an interesting question when it comes to the timing of the message. As with the problems that agencies face with other mediums for getting their message out Facebook holds an interesting paradox when it comes to timing as, although the technology allows for the message to be sent out almost instantly, it doesnt appear that the messages are being sent out that quickly or acted on with any speed. While some campaigns have had great success with getting the word out on Facebook, such as Mac who created a buzz with their Mac vs PC ads which ended up on a lot of peoples Facebook pages, there is still the delay between when a message is sent out and when it might be acted on. As Gwyneth mentioned in her lecture the implementation of new technologies, such as Foxtel IQ, has meant that there is a time shift in when veiwing occurs and I think that this could also be true for the way that Facebook operates. I dont know how many times I have come and looked at my Facebook after a few days and gone back through peoples pages just to find what has been happening and what I missed. The same could happen for companies if they are sending out messages within a specific timeline. I think this represents a large obstacle for marketers as there is too little known about consumers Facebook usage rates to know whether your message is actually going to be recieved by your target audience. Relying on a message to pop up on their news feed seems inadequate.

So the question is, can you really find your target market on Facebook or are they willing to find you? And as Nick mentioned, is it really benificial for just anyone to be able to find you?

References:
Wells,W, Spence-Stone, R., Mariatry S. Burnett, J. (2008). Advertising: Principles and Practice. Pearson Education Australia, Sydney, pp.304-335Wilcox, D.L and Cameron, G.T (2009). Public Relations Strategies and Tactics, (9th Edition) Chapter 7 ‘Communications” Pearson Education, USA

Bryan: Befriending a Brand

ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS:

I agree with Rebecca. Facebook is ripe for public affairs. I just think many practitioners are only now beginning to understand that social networking has transformed the way people make decisions. As Andy Marken wrote for Public Relations Quarterly in 2008, studies have shown that individuals go online to research ideas and products before making up their mind.

“Conventional news media may make the consumer aware of the (issue) but people make their… decisions from peer recommendations” – not organisational websites or literature, not from the local retail outlet, not even from online expert recommendations (Marken 2008).

The problem is that modern communication/marketer professionals are still a little scared of the unknown. I agree with you, Nick. If they haven’t gleaned experience exercising these new online strategies, they’re complacently stuck in old methodology, closed to ideas that might require a new learning curve. It’s an old dog new trick sort of thing – or just plain laziness.

I remember in 1997, fighting with my employer to conduct direct mail campaigns via email. He didn’t understand it. He didn’t trust it. And, the little he’d heard about it, he didn’t like. But now everyone does online marketing and his company is right there with them. And yes, Nick, he’s doing exactly what everyone else does.

But not out of fear or brand dilution, just simply because it works. In the 10 plus years that I’ve been studying online marketing, I’ve learned that conformity is only a rule-set for a language of commerce. The most successful websites are ones where individuals know how to obtain the info they need – common placement of navigation links, contact info, ‘zine signup, product offer, and organisational profile.

Uniform simplicity is what’s most profitable online. So, again yes, creativity doesn’t mean an open pallet, it means fitting an idea into a limited framework. Highly creative concepts that break out of the box in a dramatic way, do so for a very specific demographic, namely youth, and for a limited amount of time. The key, I believe, is to brand an organisation directly to the target audience so as to stay ahead of its trends.

That’s where Facebook comes in. Jeffrey Hanckock, an associate professor of communications at Cornell University, studied the social networking phenomenon, discovering that “Cyberspace friendships form over common interests just as they do in real life” (The Futurist:World Trends and Forecast 2009). As Marken (2008) writes, “it’s a community” and the key to admission is invitation.

A study conducted in by Dr Hope Koch in 2009, revealed that individuals trust social networking on sites such as Facebook more than direct company contact. They’re like me, more likely to engage an organisation if introduced by a friend. That’s what PR professionals can capitalize on. And no Nick, I don’t think they need any other hook than that. It’s all about point of commonality.

If you know my community and or subset of that community, you’ll know what short tweet-sized message will, (at risk of showing my sales roots) push the audience’s hot buttons. The question then for marketers and PR practitioners is how to access who my peers and I are.

PRIVACY:

Conveniently for them, Facebook reversed its privacy policy last December and made almost all information, including status updates, searchable in real-time on Google and Bing if users don’t change their privacy settings.

The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, defended this action at an awards ceremony in San Francisco this past January, “saying it was in line with the new social norms”. He argued that lots of people now share personal information online – “their activities, habits, and purchases” – and don’t care if it’s captured by businesses.

And while that may be fine for the 59 percent of Facebook users who are between 18 and 25, I’m not so sure the rest of its 350 million members Zuckerberg claims to have would agree. Like Rebecca, I have closely regulated who can see my information and what I allow posted on my Facebook page. It is after-all my personal space in my community and uninvited prying eyes are not welcome.

Users have to be really careful about their privacy online. Employers, family and just about anyone could potentially have access to personal information through a simple search engine. More and more people are losing jobs and opportunities by believing their lives online are as private as the ones at home. As Reid Goldborough writes in Teacher Librarian, “keep the private private.”

FRIENDSHIP:

So now the issue is how do Facebook users know who to share information with – who to make their ‘friend’. Nick, you raised this concern as well; are those hunting for our bits of data, truly ‘friends’. Michael Simonson writes in the journal Distance Learning, we all intrinsically know “what it means to be a friend. We learn early in life that, as Emerson said, ‘The only way to have a friend is to be one’.”

But unlike some other languages, relationship-based words are often ambiguous in English, encompassing more than one level and interaction. Take for example, the concept of ‘love’. Is the love felt for my mother, pet, girlfriend, or best friend the same, yet there is only one word. The same is true for ‘friend’. A friend could be only an acquaintance.

For instance, a number of those on my Facebook list are people I went to high school with but with whom I never really had a friendship. Yet I added them, much like past work colleagues, out of some fear of reticule within my network. As Gwyneth commented early in our postings, “how do we manage it?” How do we avoid the social pitfalls of such antisocial behaviour as not ‘friending’ someone?

Do I avoid Facebook, relegating myself exclusively to onground activities, like an adolescent too afraid to go to school and confront the social pressures of youth? No, I do as Rebecca suggested and manage my personal brand. I change my Facebook privacy settings to segment my ‘friends’ by level intimacy, and control what they can and cannot view on my page; I apologise to co-workers and offer them membership in my LinkedIn network instead.

The complex relational issues experienced on social networking sites like Facebook are the same that confront us in the real onground world. I don’t need to not participate. I just have to be picky about who enters my community, whether they’re true friends or communicators looking to gain something from me. Entry is at my permission and my permission alone.

And yes, I do on occassion become friends with companies and join their Facebook pages. James Boag is my friend and he makes me laugh all the time with is humorous video uploads. Sometimes he and my network even get together for a beer. Nothing says community like a cold one on a hot Aussie day. That guy really knows me.


References:

Anonymous. (2009). How to win at social networking. The Futurist: World Trends and Forecast, 43(4), 9.

Anonymous. (2010). Facebook founder: Online privacy not a “social norm”. Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, 59(2), 48-49.

Elmore, B. (2009). Social networking strategies. Baylor Business Review, 28(1), 25-27.

Goldsborough, R. (2009). Looking good on social networking sites. Teacher Librarian, 36(3), 62.

Marken, A. (2008). The new communications tools… listening, helping. Public Relations Quarterly, 52(3), 21.

Simonson, M. (2008). Will you be my friend. Distance Learning, 5(2), 99-100.

Nick: brand and social media

Rebecca, now you are moving into territory I am interested in! A lot of IMC academics such as Chris Fill (2009, one of our readings) talk about brand as the creation of personality to establish a point of difference between like products and I think on the face of it there is potential for companies to use Facebook as one avenue for creating this brand personality because it offers the opportunity to begin a dialogue with potential customers. However, I will assume my favourite role of devil's advocate and argue there are some major question marks over whether this will be done well by most companies.

The first question comes back to the lack of control you mentioned and although I agree companies can certainly gain mileage by tackling problems head on and taking an honest approach in managing their reputation, most marketing and communications professionals HATE doing so. In another one of our readings Kotler says "The company must strive to deliver a consistent and positive message to the market." This sums up what most practitioners believe it is that we do. They believe in control. I couldn't tell you the number of times I have developed communications messages and ideas for companies that I am confident will engage the target audience (because I have done the research to uncover an insight that is going to really mean something to them) that have been vetoed by a marketing or communications person within the company. So many are simply not prepared to take the 'risk' of tackling a perception problem head on. You are right in suggesting that you could be a better communications practitioner for learning how to manage your reputation via Facebook but it is disappointing how few practitioners will be prepared to relinquish control in order to take full advantage of the opportunities I imagine Facebook could present to companies.

The second major question is reach and engagement. It is all well and good to have a Facebook page but I would imagine just like a website there has to be a reason or hook for people to visit it which is exactly the same problem marketers face with any other medium so how does Facebook provide anything revolutionary? Doesn't it simply create the same old dilemma in a different medium? Have you guys seen any truly engaging communications/advertising/ campaign ideas come through Facebook? Rebecca, in some ways your friend's company seems like a good cause not just a money spinner which may well be why it does so well - people are happy and comfortable to refer it and to be associated with it.

The third question comes down to imagination. What tends to happen with the emergence of the 'latest thing' in new media is that someone will have a great idea that creates a frenzy as everyone else tries to cash in but they are not sure what to do (probably because they are of the risk averse variety of practitioner we mentioned above) so in the interest of doing something quickly in order not to miss out they copy exactly what everyone else is doing. When you look at most corporate websites for example there is a formula. You have to have an 'about us' page and a 'what we do page' etc. the majority of them copy each other because it is easier and/or all they know... The 'consistency' that Kotler speaks of is also a problem for imagination as hard line brand managers won't let different (left field) ideas develop because of fears that it might dilute the brand.

The fourth question is the term 'friend' itself. If we are going to be honest a company is only interested in your friendship really because they want to take something from you - your hard earned cash. There is something quite predatory about the idea of companies looking to become people's friends. As you guys have already suggested you are very wary of company approaches unless they are personally recommended by a friend etc.

That is probably enough from me for now but I will have a think about Facebook and the latest branding fad of creating "brand relationships" because you would think 'friendships' and 'relationships' go hand in hand...

Nick

Rebecca: Managing Reputation

Everyone so far has addressed the issue of privacy. Nick you specifically said “Sure I have some interest in knowing where certain people are and what they are doing but I am not about to give up my privacy in order to delve into theirs.” I think this is a fair statement and something that everyone is concerned about, especially when you originally lose your Facebook (or any other form of social media) virginity.

Even though I have used Facebook for several years now I remain somewhat cautious of it and because of this I closely manage my profile, removing pictures or comments that might be seen as negative by family, friends or future employers. However, I believe this lack of privacy is very much a learning tool that is especially beneficial for communications students. During our future careers we will be the individuals trusted with the brand management and reputations of our respective organizations. What better way to learn how to manage a reputation then to actually do it with the reputation you are most concerned with, your own. On Facebook we each learn to manage our own brand and much like companies some people manage more successfully then others.

Brand management is a huge issue for corporations today. Facebook my pose certain risks to reputation but the only way to manage these risks is to get involved. By maintaining a Facebook page companies can control what messages they are putting out and can manage comments and inputs to the page. This doesn’t mean deleting negative posts. Removing material can be more damaging then the material itself. What it does is allows a company to openly and publicly address issues and negative comments as they arrive in real time. This will allow PR practitioners to remain on top of the environment they are operating in and detect issues that may be under the surface and impossible to detect through other forms of media.

Using Facebook also allows PR practitioners to access their consumers individually and directly and in a preferred format. Companies can also audit their target audiences and quickly change to their needs and requests. There is currently no closer contact with the consumer. Companies should seize this close access opportunity and snuggle up with their consumers via Facebook.

Bryan: Past and Present (Blog 2)

Now like all my friends and acquaintances, I use Facebook to instant message (IM), email friends, create event invites, save photos and even blog. It has become my go-to application for what used to involve numerous websites and the Facebook interface is nowhere as good as those stand-alone programs.

It’s just convenient, all my friends are doing it, and like Chantelle said, Facebook is free. In a single location, all these tools allow me to stay in touch with friends around the world to a greater extent than I might have otherwise. My correspondence habits like many peoples’ are a bit lazy.

Perhaps that’s the beauty of Facebook. I don’t have to call my mother every week because she can see my updates and photos online. Sure, it could be argued that Facebook has become a long-distance social crutch for me. But if I couldn’t walk anyway, i.e. didn’t call my mum, isn’t it far better than nothing.

I don’t know about other people, but it doesn’t take much for me to feel connected to friends and family on Facebook. Just reading someone’s status update feels like personal contact and when we exchange comments, it’s as satisfying as a proper conversation - the irony of connectivity in a disconnected world.

Of course that hypersensitivity can quickly become negative when that online communication is unsolicited and or unwanted. For that reason, I ignore most groups, games and even friends who post updates on such things as virtual farm animals.

My personal tolerance for online public relations, marketing and political campaigning in what I perceive to be my personal Facebook space is therefore very low. But as the chart above shows, the use of such communication is expected to grow much like social-networking sites themselves.

The chart above was borrowed from Forrester Research in the United States. To read more about them go to http://www.forrester.com/rb/research. The research above was found on the Marketing Pilgrim blog at http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/04/forrester-social-media-growth.html.

With forecasts like this, I best get used to marketers invading my social media. Although like my acceptance of this medium, I’m sure I will come to embrace their presence. The key for me will be the receipt of such messages via Facebook friends and not direct from the marketers themselves.

Bryan: Past and Present (Blog 1)

Like Rebecca, I too began as a skeptic. Friends kept inviting me to join Facebook but I resisted. Previous sites before it had gotten my membership and I then did nothing with them. Each time I’d get to that place in the sign up where they’d ask me to invite my contacts, I’d lose interest.

This figure to the right was borrowed from the research of Boyd and Ellison (2007). You can read more about their work at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html.

My reluctance dated back to the grandfather of social networking sites, Sixdegrees.com. At risk of dating myself, I’ll confess to being a charter member. That was in 1997 and, after only two years of real internet commerce, the world as a whole was still skeptical of sharing their personal information online.

The backlash I got from people who now wouldn’t think twice about joining my Facebook page was overwhelming and the experience obviously coloured my perspective for a decade. But for some reason, much like Rebecca and Chantelle, I felt left out and finally gave in to peer pressure.

That was in 2007, almost an entire year after Facebook had launched and by the time I got to it, practically everyone everywhere was already a member. It must have grown like wildfire overnight. I guess like most social trends there is an evolution.

In the beginning things grow slowly as the majority resists change but, with each new convert, a couple more are influenced. Before long that ping-pong size snow ball is a basketball and then a boulder. Finally, the mainstream accepts it and skeptics like you, Nick, are the minority. And yes, those who don't participate are often left out.

Nick: All a bit school yard

Rebecca and Chantelle, thank you both for your thoughts.

Chantelle, I think it is apt and interesting that you mention Facebook is a good way of keeping up with people from school. I guess that is what bugs me about the whole thing - it does feel all a bit school yard. People gossip about what photo is on who's page. They seem to have their holidays up to show off before they have been on them. And as for the relish people seem to take in refusing or ending friendships - it is primary school all over again! I have kept up with the school friends I wanted to and have left the others to their lives. Sure I have some interest in knowing where certain people are and what they are doing but I am not about to give up my privacy in order to delve into theirs. As for the social calendar, does that not mean Chantelle, that every one of your friends has to be on Facebook in order to plug into the 'events' calendar for your group of friends? What happens to the ones who are not on Facebook (or am I the only person in the world). No, I am still skeptical (why does blogger want it to be spelled with a k, is it the American spelling Bryan?)

I have some thoughts on the 'friends' and sales side of course but will hold off until others have had their say on this round...

Nick

Rebecca: My Facebook Experience

Nick,

Once upon a time I was also a Facebook sceptic.

I first became aware of Facebook during my undergrad at the end of 2006. I found the invasion of privacy the site provided a little frightening and decided to not sign up. Slowly everyone around me started joining and using it more frequently, it almost seemed to take on cult aspects. Eventually, I started to feel that I was missing out on plans and conversations because I stubbornly refused to have my life exposed to others.

On April 4, 2007, I finally became a proud Facebook user. My use to date is predominately social. I would estimate that I regularly interact with 5 per cent of my “friends,” keep up-to-date with another 5 to 10 per cent and the majority are acquaintances which I rarely to never interact with. Many of this last group are people that I’ve shared experiences with in the past (such as met while travelling) and would feel comfortable calling upon if I had a reason, but they aren’t part of my everyday life. In this way Facebook has become a fabulous way of recording the people and events that pass through your life.

I will admit that I remain a somewhat primitive Facebook user. I avoid most applications and rarely add pages or groups that don’t directly affect me. For this reason, I don’t feel that corporations are fully benefitting from my use of Facebook. Still, I do believe there is a benefit for PR practitioners.

A past professor of mine actively and successfully uses Facebook to promote her company. I believe it is the only form of marketing she uses. She owns a small not-for-profit jewellery company, KSSelects. I am a member of the page and regularly receive updates when new products are available. The messages also explain how profit is being used, often to help children in Africa. The page has helped her to raise thousands of dollars, making her a huge supporter of social media. I agree with her view that there is huge untapped potential for organizations that properly implement Facebook into their integrated marketing programs. I hope to find more success stories in the next few weeks. Does anyone else know of companies that have created businesses solely through Facebook?

Check out KSSelects @ http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&gid=37505548297

Chantelle: Why join Facebook

Chantelle: Why join facebook?
Ok Nick, consider the following

- It’s free!

- You can reconnect with people you went to school with/uni with, reinvoking friendships that may have been lost.

- You can keep in contact with current friends on a mass scale. Yes it’s less personal than one to one conversations, but friends get a sense of what is going on with you and you get a sense of what is going on with them.

- It facilitates meeting new people and networking.

- You are in control. You can accept people as friends, block them, ignore them or delete them. You are also in control of how much you want others to see about you or what you want to see about others.

- It’s easy to use and extremely accessible. You can check in via your mobile and have updates sent to your email etc.

- Possibly the most useful element for me is the ability to use facebook as my social calendar. Through facebook you can create, or be invited to, events. Facebook allows you to see who, and how many people, have committed to attending (and thus to avoid the event entirely if people who you don’t want to see are going).

- Related to this facebook reminds you about the upcoming events you have committed to attending and about friend’s upcoming birthdays (therefore preventing the awkward situation when you forget).

Thinking about it, some of these points cross over as to why an enterprise would benefit from using facebook. It can expose them to their consumers, allow them to build relationships and advertise marketing events. In turn it would allow them to target their niche groups, access feedback and to develop their brand and raise its visibility.

Did I mention it’s free?

Nick: I'm sceptical

Ok guys, as you well know I am a Facebook skeptic. Before we move on to discussing 'friends' and the 'PR opportunities' topics tell me why I should sign up to Facebook in the first place...

Why did you take the plunge and how has the experience been different to what you were expecting?

Bryan: Team Participation

Hi Team,

Rebecca brings up a good point that if we all communicate via 'comments', most of the conversation will be hidden from view. So....

NEW POSTING FORMAT FOR TEAM MEMBERS:

1) POSTING: Please log in as the ADMIN each time you'd like to post a statement and simply add it as a blog post. Just be sure to put your first 'NAME:' before the 'TITLE',
for example:

'Bryan: Team Participation'.

This way we'll both be able to see which team-member posted what and know all 'comments' to those posts are from the public.

2) TAGS: Then add the same tags as the post you're replying to so we can track conversation strings.

3) CONVERSATION: Finally, please try to make your blogs as converational as possible. That way the project will grow organically and we can drape academic research over our thoughts. In other words, try to avoid stand-alone blogs and instead make each entry a reply to another team-member's one or two before yours. Then just include links and photographs to research in that reply.

See you on the blog!

Bryan: Join the Discussion

To join our discussion, click the word 'comment' highlighted in blue near the bottom of each posted blog or comment. You'll be prompted to sign in. I recommend ticking the Google option. If you don't already have a Google user account, you can sign up with any email address you wish. (Note: you do not need to sign up for a blogger.com account as well.) The name you give Google will then appear at the bottom of your posts to the blog.

Bryan: Introduction

The PR use of Facebook team consists of Belynda, Bryan, Chantelle, Nick and Rebecca. We are a student group from the University of Western Sydney presenting an assessment for our class in Integrated Marketing Communications. Welcome to our blog!

The topic of discussion is: Who are you and why would I want to be your friend? PRs using Facebook to access key media and clients.