Commentary

A Facebook Fan Isn't Your Marketing Pincushion

by Joe Marchese , February 2, 2010

Every time someone receives a marketing message, he or she does a quick analysis: Did I get anything out of this exchange, and was it worth the inconvenience? This doesn't change with social media. So if marketers think acquiring a Facebook Fan one time gives them the right to "remarket" to people whenever they want, they are in for a very rude awakening.

Paid media's job is to find points of value where people are willing to exchange their time and attention toward marketing messages in exchange for value. Nothing about that contract changes in social media. The ability to use paid media to generate fans on Facebook is a far superior tool to collecting email addresses for future communication, but it is not a guarantee of future marketing opportunities, unless marketers are smart about how they use their fan pages to deliver benefit to fans. With the right benefit exchanges, marketers can then mix in marketing messaging -- and yes, "benefit" will almost always mean costs, so, sorry, no such thing as free media.

Quality paid media will deliver a person's undivided attention and give marketers the ability to deliver their message using the full attributes of a given medium. If a marketer's main goal is to generate Facebook fans, it should have a program set up for how it will benefit those fans for receiving future marketing messages. Because, just as people filter out "junk email," if a marketer's fan page isn't giving back, then its feeds will end up in the "junk feeds" bin (re: hide all feeds from this source), and the marketer will be left wondering why no one is talking back.

Of course, another use for paid media is the same as it's always been: given a person's undivided attention, take the opportunity to engage that person with a brand message. Over a period of time, various engagements build up a person's preference for, and identification with, your brand. Of course, that sounds so "old fashioned." It can't possibly be that simple in social media -- or could it?

This post in 140 characters or less: A Facebook fan isn't your marketing pincushion, why social media doesn't defy marketing economics http://bit.ly/4fL8V (by @joemarchese)

commentary, social media

4 comments about "A Facebook Fan Isn't Your Marketing Pincushion".

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Kevin Dwinnell from Brand Thunder, February 2, 2010 at 3:40 p.m.
Nice commentary, Joe. It'd be easy to fall into the trappings of "These are my fans. I finally get to talk all about me!" But, you can't. There still needs to be mutual respect and a value exchange. Helping fans get more of what they like about you may mean giving them less of yourself.
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Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, February 2, 2010 at 4:03 p.m.

Once more, some people just don't have enough to do.

Laura Betterly from Yada Yada Marketing, Inc., February 2, 2010 at 7:14 p.m.

I agree Joe. I think that some of these people have to rethink their "Fan Pages" Take a look at some of the fan pages out there--I'm sorry, I'm not going to be a fan of "Painful Rectal Itch" (a real fan page with 2 fans) or a fan of "Industrial Foam" .. I have to think, what's the benefit to me before I'm going to become a fan...

If you just look at it from a basic marketing view, people buy (or join) on benefits, not on features, nor on general topics..

Also, if I ignore a fan page request, I would hope the person who sent it won't consider sending it to me over and over....

Anyway, that's my rant on the subject.

Laura :-)

Lisa Totino from BGT Partners, February 9, 2010 at 2:44 p.m.

I think it warrants a discussion on what being a Facebook Fan means. I know with the younger audience, not much. It is more for amusement rather than some level of engagement. Expectations are low to what the Fan Page should do or what they want it to do.