Facebook-All grown up and still growing

Facebook – All grown up but still growing June 16, 2009 brandsential Page 1 Who is Jeffrey Veffer? • • • • • Active member of the Internet community for over 15 years with deep experience in Interactive content and video Part of start-up team for Discovery Channel’s website exn.net Set up streaming media business for Excite@Home Canada Founding member of Innovation and Strategy team at Bell Canada Background in Architecture and Design (yes really!) Company - http://brandsential.com Facebook - http://facebook.com/JeffreyVeffer LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/jeffreyveffer Twitter - http://twitter.com/jeffreyveffer Blog – http://jeffreyveffer.com; http://combinedoptimism.org (and others!) June 16, 2009 brandsential Page 2 A few hints for creating successful engagement (in any medium) •Create valuable content for your users •Fish where the fish are •Join the conversation by giving others a voice •Update regularly Photo credit – Loosends http://www.flickr.com/photos/lunaspin/3206373800/sizes/m/ June 16, 2009 brandsential Page 3 What exactly is Facebook? • • “Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life” (Facebook.com) More than just a site, it makes it easy for everyone to make connections without having in-depth technical ability It is a Web 2.0 * publishing platform (No HTML coding needed) It is email 2.0: you only get messages from your friends you trust! It is a Platform: (and this is where is gets exciting!) *Web 2.0 – loosely defined as the “participatory (or social) web.” June 16, 2009 brandsential Page 4 Lets look at some stats... June 16, 2009 brandsential Page 5 If Facebook were a country… More than 200 Million active users! • June 16, 2009 Facebook would be the worlds 5th largest country by population! (Facebook internal) brandsential Page 6 Its not just for high school kids anymore… and the stats show more older users getting on 13-17 18-34 35-55+ • June 16, 2009 In other words, there are more US Facebook users 26-44 than 18-25 today, so its not just about Youth Marketing anymore. (InsideFacebook) brandsential Page 7 Time Spent online Next 10 largest networks 19% MyYearbook 8% Facebook 26% MySpace.com 12% Gaia Online 23% Tagged.com 12% • • June 16, 2009 Facebook is the clear leader in time spent on social networks, and by February, 2009 accounted for almost 5% of all time spent online by US users! (Neilsen) The average US user spends about 75 hours online/month so that means they are on Facebook for nearly 3 hours! brandsential Page 8 Facebook pages (or profiles for Brands) • • • Developed because brands were using user profiles for their companies (contravening the user agreement) Pages look like user profiles – a brand’s “home” on Facebook and a place to make connections with fans of your brand by joining the conversation Pages can integrate multiple applications Applications Facebook page [has fans] Facebook profile [has friends] Facebook group [has members] • What does it mean to me? (Part 1)- Brands are using them to build awareness, drive traffic to a destination, create a new distribution channel and more! June 16, 2009 brandsential Page 9 What’s a Facebook “Application?” An application could be anything- A game, a tool, a way to interact with users. The platform is free – you don’t need to pay Facebook anything for the application Need to consider context – most applications on the site aren’t overly complex but the successful ones keep users coming back • Applications are viral – friends get notified when your users interact with an application AND • Applications are extremely easy to share – users just invite their friends right from the application! • FBML (the language that developers use to program apps) is similar (though not exactly the same) as HTML; so there are many developers that can write apps • Platform stats- more than 5,000 applications have 10,000 monthly active users • Wildfire launched a sophisticated B2B application • What does it mean to me? (Part 2) – Tools to help you manageFacebook that allows brands to manage campaigns in engagement and on other sites (MySpace, Ning). • The cost is as low as $1/day Source (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?factsheet#/press/info.php?statistics) • • • June 16, 2009 brandsential Page 10 Case Study 1- JLM Couture: Simple way to get started • • • Bridal dress designer based out of New York selling a wide range of bridal designs The company doesn't sell direct to consumers but directs them to a retailer They created an application called “The Wedding Dress that Fits You Best” that is a light-hearted quiz asking you about your preferences then suggests the style that would be best for you Currently has 916 active monthly users They put up the link for it on their webpage Whenever users take the quiz, their Facebook friends are notified, spreading awareness virally • • • June 16, 2009 brandsential Page 11 Case Study 2- Tostitos: Zero to 17,000+ fans in one month • • Promoted Tostitos' Amazing Race-style cross country race Statistics: to the Fiesta Bowl. • • • 17,779 people became fans of the Facebook page Race itself featured two teams consisting of six fans from • 56,531 Ohio views the University of Texas andpageState University who raced from New York to39,477to win a $100,000 scholarship for • Arizona unique visitors their school. • 597 wall posts Simple concept – Get the most rabid fans to compete for • 1098 uploading video and pictures $100k for their school byentries with photos for the contest • 1925 entries to the contest – First Featured a Facebook page and two embedded apps were shared with a friends was for students to apply to be on the team; second is a viewer for users to scroll through all the content • • • When race started, YouTube integration on Facebook allowed easy viewing of video uploaded “from the road” Took high degree of planning and logistics to seamlessly integrate Gave users value – beyond the $100k, built on users desire to support their school and get entertained in the meantime June 16, 2009 brandsential Page 12 Get on Facebook and see what other brands are doing to engage their users! Establish objectives for your engagement Measure, measure, measure (but the right things!) June 16, 2009 brandsential Page 13 Thank you! Visit us at brandsential.com Jeffrey.veffer@brandsential.com June 16, 2009 brandsential Page 14