Facebook dying? Only if you’re a sleezy marketeer..

So apparently ‘people’ are getting bored of facebook, reverting to simply using twitter, or giving up on social media altogether. Who are these people and why are they not enjoying facebook?

Facebook is not built for marketeers

Sorry guys, facebook wasn’t built for you. It was built for people to socially interact with their friends. I don’t market myself or my brand on facebook I just chat with my friends, colleagues, family etc.

It’s like an answer phone for instant messaging!

Using facebook for marketing is a bit like blogging on a topic your not interested in, purely for profit, it’s not interesting and more often than not you get bored and give up pretty quickly.

Should marketeers use facebook regardless of who it was built for?

I strongly believe that for any marketeer it would be a mistake to ignore facebook. Firstly, there are a few groups where marketeers/SEOs/webmasters etc. hang out and discuss things. Facebook Whores for SEO, SMO and SEM Awareness where you can chat to and build up relationships with other like-minded individuals if you’re so inclined.

Another reason to embrace facebook is if you work with clients who either already have a brand name or are trying to build one up. Strategic use of facebook as a medium for brands to talk to consumers is clearly going to be beneficial for both parties. One of the ways this can be done is through facebook pages. These are essentially sponsored profiles on facebook that allow a brand to reach out to fans (or haters) and interact with them.

There are also many unofficial groups centred around brands that marketeers should be aware of. They can paint a positive or negative picture of your brand depending on the nature of the group. It is important to keep tabs on these as you should be of the web in general as part of your reputation monitoring strategy.

For marketeers who don’t work for big brands there is also facebook flyers/advertising/whatever it is officially called now. Essentially, you can advertise down the sidebar:

Or you can advertise in the news feed or users:

These adverts can be target to specific categories of users but I’m not entirely sure of the exact specifics

There did seem to be a lot of talk of the facebook ads performing really poorly. I assume it varies on a campaign by campaign basis but I’d say it’s worth checking out, at least some people are having success.

Facebook is much more suited for people interested in social interaction

While facebook is certainly going to be more interesting for people who use it for what it was meant for, keeping in touch with your friends, it’s still a service you cannot ignore as an internet marketeer. There are so many ways it can be used, from brand building and reputation management, to advertising/affiliate marketing, to simply building relationships with other industry contacts.

Don’t ignore facebook, it’s not going away any time soon!

P.S – Don’t worry I don’t actually think you guys are sleezy marketeers ;]

Related posts:

1. Who needs Twitter when you’ve got Facebook status updates?
2. French advertising on facebook
3. Dear Facebook, please tell me what kind of lingerie I am!
4. The big social media marketing myth
5. So you want to get social?

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