• by Catharine P. Taylor , June 4, 2008

I wish I could have spent more time at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's User-Generated Content and Social Media conference on Monday, but things being what they are with me these days, it just wasn't possible.

Still, I had time to attend a couple of sessions, including a breakout that was a practical look at Facebook apps, featuring several Facebook executives: Vice President/Media Sales Tom Arrix and Tim Kendall, director of monetization. But the real star was James Kiernan, vice president/associate director of digital media and innovation at Mediavest, because he was there showing how the most mighty (but in some ways the most banal) advertiser of all, Procter & Gamble, uses Facebook. When people from P&G -- or people who represent P&G -- talk, other people listen.

Kiernan showed efforts P&G had done for Tide and Herbal Essences, and one for Crest that dates back to when Facebook was for students only. In some ways, there was nothing particularly special about what he showed. Tide gave out virtual T-shirts, Crest used pictures of people's smiles in a voting competition, and the Herbal Essences page, which has more than 3800 fans, is sprinkled with uber-feminine offers like "a free mani or pedi" and the chance to put a nice hairdo on your AIM WeeMee, whatever that is. (Not the AIM part, the WeeMee part.)

The breakthrough was the idea, if you will, behind the idea. Kiernan believes Facebook pages (and presumably other, similar social media efforts) should be thought of as "your new CRM database," giving marketers new insight into what the markets for their brands really think of them. For some marketers, this is obvious; for others, it's a mental leap. But no matter your education level about social media, it's accurate.

Wall postings on the Herbal Essences page range from "Thanks for making my guy's dreadlocks smell yummy" to several from the brand, including one asking its fans if they "want a chance to shape the future of Herbal Essences." (And at least one from someone asking how to "un-fan" themselves.) Rather than being a one-off around a promotion, the page is used as an ongoing discussion between the brand and the people who care about it most. That's how these pages should be used, but again, for some advertisers, it's a mental leap. Otherwise, every brand would be doing this..

Let's just leave it at this: if pages on places like Facebook and MySpace are good enough for P&G, dear advertisers, they're good enough for you.