Facebook Advertising | Social Media Marketing

Entertainment giant Disney Corporation is using Facebook effectively in promoting their latest movie, Alice In Wonderland. Their Alice In Wonderland Facebook Fan Page is one of the most customised Facebook pages we have ever seen. It is beautifully illustrated and filled with interactive features and all kinds of fun stuff for fans.

The opening page is not the Wall as in most Facebook fan pages but a quirky Mad Hatter Flash application where you can join the Mad Hatter’s army to fight the Red Queen. There is also an invitation to a special Tea-Party (for getting the viral message out there) as well as plenty of videos and pictures. The fan pages feature a separate tab for the movie based Nintendo Wii and SD games as well as a live stream from the red carpet party. The stream is delivered by Ustream which is the other big name in Facebook streaming together with Livestream who produced the Foo Fighters concert three months ago (see post). Disney’s Alice In Wonderland Facebook page has attracted close to a million fans and as I’m writing this post the numbers keep on going up and up. These fan pages are a good example of how companies can use, and should use Facebook as part of their social marketing operations. Click here to see the fan page.  The new Alice In Wonderland movie, directed by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp as Mad Hatter opens in movie theaters March 5.

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It’s the biggest event in the history of sports. Olympics. As Facebook has become the biggest Social Media and hang around place on the planet, then obviously Olympics must be on Facebook as well. The official Facebook page for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics (www.facebook.com/olympics) is nicely put together with lots of pictures, videos, discussions and even an RSS feed subscription. The Facebook page was established by the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) as a part of their marketing program. It is no accident that they also have a link to their official merchandising store on the page info. The Vancouver 2010 fan page has gathered over 1.1 million fans so far; whereas the Beijing 2008 Olympics Facebook page managed to get ‘only’ about 320.000 fans. This must be an indication of the huge growth Facebook has experienced in the last few years. The next Winter Olympics which will be held in 2014 in Sochi (South-West Russia) have also set-up their Facebook page in good time and will no doubt gather a million plus fan base when the time comes. Additionally there are two wanna be Facebook Groups pitching for future events; Chicago 2016 and Minneapolis 2020.

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James Cameron’s new film Avatar has become a massive hit in the box office. It is a wonderful combination of a virtual world and a real world. It is also a no-brainer to predict that it will be released as an online version at some stage. Today’s virtual online worlds have attracted millions of users, reasonable venture capital and even impressive revenues once in awhile. The futuristic term “virtual world” means different things to different audience. Some of the popular ones include Sims, Gaia Online, Habbo or Kaneva. Then we have the  large-scale multiplayer games like Blizzard’s World of Warcraft and Diablo. One of the pioneers in this area was the open-ended 3D play ground Second Life which took the world by storm in 2005.

Facebook has its own selection of virtual worlds in the form of the hugely popular Mafia Wars and a bit older Vampires, City of Eternals. Mafia Wars has over 1.6 million fans on Facebook and there are 25 million monthly users who are playing it. The game has over 75.000 followers on Twitter as well. As Facebook is the dominant social network at the moment it would not be a surprise if the Avatar world of Pandora would be released on Facebook rather sooner than later. In the meantime, let’s go and see the 3D version of the film again…and again.

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If you enjoy using Social Media Websites chances are that you would have a Facebook account as well as a Twitter account. Both of these allow you to make updates to your status. By creating a connection between these two accounts you only need to write your message once as it will be posted to the other one automatically. There are two ways of creating the connection between Facebook and Twitter. You can link your Twitter account to your personal Facebook account; or you can link your Facebook Page to your Twitter account.  In the first option the message goes from Twitter to Facebook and in the second option it goes from Facebook to Twitter. For instance if you use Twitter regularly just write your message on your Twitter account and it will be posted automatically on your Facebook account. You will see it on your Facebook profile page and it will appear on the Facebook News Feed. Here is how you can do that in just a few simple steps.

Connecting Your Twitter Account to Your Personal Facebook Account

In this connection when you write a message on your Twitter account it gets automatically posted into your Facebook status and Wall. Here are 5 simple steps how you can make that connection. You need to be logged into your Facebook account in order to do this.

Step 1 – Locate the Twitter Application

The Twitter application as well as many other cool applications are stored in the Facebook Applications area.

http://www.facebook.com/apps/directory.php

Alternatively, you can access it directly at the following URL:

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2231777543

Once you have located the application click the blue ‘Go to Application’ -button.

Step2 – Allow Access

By clicking the ‘Allow’ –button you will authorise Twitter and Facebook create the connection needed. Go ahead and … click.

Step 3 – Log on to Twitter

Next you will need to log in to your Twitter account to make the connection happen.

Since we are creating a connection to your personal Facebook account you should use your personal Twitter account here as well.

Step 4 – Allow Twitter updates

In order to get the automatic update from your Twitter account to show up on your Facebook status you need to click the ‘+ Allow Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status’ –button.

This enables the connection and sends you to the next screen.

Step 5 – Authorisation

This is a bit unnecessary step but you need to click the blue ‘Allow Status Updates’ –button to finalise the operation.

The only good thing about this page is that it gives you the page URL where you can change the settings of this Twitter application as well as your other Facebook applications. Here is the direct link to that page: http://www.facebook.com/editapps.php

Once you click the button you will be back on the previous screen. From this screen you can also update your Facebook status. This will be posted automatically to you Twitter account as well. Please note that when you update your status on your Facebook profile page as you would do normally, it does not post to your Twitter account.

…and you’re done!

Congratulations!

You have now connected your Twitter account with your personal Facebook account. Everytime you  write a new Twitter post it will now automatically show up on your Facebook Profile. Next time we will have a look how to connect your Facebook Business Page to your Twitter business account.

This article is Part 2 of the illustrated bonus guide ‘Linking Facebook and Twitter‘ which you can get free by ordering the Facebook Advertising Guide.

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Do You Want To Reach 350.000.000 Targeted Customers?

I have finally finished and published my Facebook Advertising Guide. It is currently available as a digital download managed by PayDotCom (108 pages, full colour) and it will be later available as a paperback.

Facebook Advertising Guide is not about fancy theories and statistics how to make million dollars on Facebook overnight. This guide book is a practical Facebook guide for all of you who want to learn how Facebook advertising works and how to do it effectively. Within the different chapters of this book I will present visual step-by-step guides how to do certain marketing operations on Facebook. There are also plenty of references and web addresses (URL’s) to various areas on Facebook and the web. Facebook Advertising Guide will show you how to bring your message across to over 350 Million targeted Facebook users quick and easy. I will teach you how you can advertise  effectively on Facebook plus how  you can create and advertise Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, Facebook News Feeds and much more. There are also plenty of real life examples of Facebook advertising projects from real companies.

If you would like to get a copy of the new Facebook Advertising Guide, please click here.

If you are still wondering what is the current state of Social Networking, Social Media or Social Media Marketing, have a look at part two of the awesome presentation series by the Boston-based communications expert, Marta Kagan.

If you missed part one, you can see it here..
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Facebook announced yesterday that they are the world’s largest social network on the planet. Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement claiming that Facebook has now more than 300 million users worldwide. It seems like only yesterday they had a mere 150 million users and that has now doubled in 13 months! Mr. Zuckerberg proudly underlined his social network’s steady growth and also announced that the company itself has now become self-sustaining and cash-flow positive. The top spot remains still undecided since China’s largest social network, QZone has also claimed 300 million users. As most of QZone users would be Chinese that would mean roughly every fourth person in China would be there. Personally I find that hard to believe. The third spot is certain though; it belongs to MySpace with 245 million users. If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to my RSS Feed or ReTweet.

If you think Social Media is just another fad that will come and go, think again. Social Media Networking represents a significant shift in the way people communicate now and in the future. Facebook has added over 100 million users in just under 9 months; over 65 million of them use it via their mobile phones or Blackberries. The fastest growing demographic is 55-65 old women. If Facebook was a country it would be the fourth biggest in the world right after China, India and United States. Mark Zuckerberg is therefore one of the top 5 leaders of the free world (well…ok, that’s bit too much.). Close to 15 million pieces of information (photos, wall posts, links, news, notes etc.) are shared on Facebook. Daily. That’s over 10.000 messages in a minute. This platform is the online marketers wet dream come true. The following video by Karl Smith and Scott McLeod shows some distubing facts and figures of the power of Social Media. If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to my RSS Feed or ReTweet.

If you are still wondering what is Social Networking, Social Media, Social Media Advertising or Social Media Marketing, have a look at this excellent presentation by a Boston-based communications professional, Marta Kagan. This was done about a year ago, so some of the figures are obviously too low. For instance in November 2008 Facebook had “only” 100 million users but today it is over 250.000.000 (see post).

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As advertisers are increasingly interested in Facebook advertising, ad revenues are not the only source of revenue for Facebook. Facebook started testing virtual currency just a few months ago so the company could also be profiting from the sale of virtual goods. With these “virtual money credits” Facebook users could carry out transactions in certain sub networks. Websites view alternative payment methods as a way to accelerate the sales of the virtual goods that can be an important source of revenue. On Facebook there is the potential for a currency exchange market similar to the hugely popular virtual world, Second Life. Second Life users have been using their Linden Dollars for quite some time now and they seem to be working fine in that particular environment. Linden Dollar rates fluctuate based on supply and demand, but over the last few years they have remained fairly stable. For 1 Us Dollar (US$) you can get about 260 Linden Dollars (L$). While Second Life’s currency is used to purchase virtual items (obviously), Facebook’s currency could be used to purchase real-world items as well; here is a huge potential for the recently updated Facebook Marketplace as well as Facebook Auctions and similar services.

Second Life has almost 15 million registered users from over 100 countries and a fully functioning economy with more than $300 million Linden Dollars transacted annually. As they have successfully implemented the use of virtual money in their environment, you might even speculate with the possibility of using Linden Dollars successfully on Facebook. This would create the biggest online marketplace in the world that would have it’s own currency. Science fiction? I don’t think so.