Businesses will need to re-think their Facebook strategies (if they have not already) to deal with the mandatory Facebook change to Timeline on March 30th. No more “landing pages” to present a unique look and message to your audience.
No more “Like Us” arrows begging people to become fans. What’s more, the Timeline Cover Image has strict rules about what can and cannot be displayed - No Call to Action, Phone Numbers, Promotions, or Pricing. Businesses will need to put all of that in their Apps which are represented under Timeline by icons. Is this change good for businesses? Initially, no one will like it because some freedoms have been stripped away and money spent is relegated to a “inner” page that companies hope their visitors will find. Eventually, we will get used to it and businesses will have to think creatively to
Why is Facebook doing this? Facebook makes their money from advertising. People do not go on Facebook to shop. If companies are putting all of their promotions and advertising on their “landing page” …what incentive is there to purchase advertising on Facebook? I speculate that Facebook wants to force business to rely on their advertising program by eliminating (or diminishing) the creative solutions that were already effective at promotions.
When people hear “Social Media Marketing”, words that first come to mind are Facebook and Twitter. However, those are only two channels that can be used in a social media marketing (SSM) strategy. Social media marketing is about 1) Engagement and 2) Building Communities. By engaging with your audience you form a tighter relationship that pays off in different ways. You might be considering new product ideas, or new features - want to know what your target market thinks? Engage them in a discussion forum, survey, contest, quiz, poll, email, blog, or coordinate an offline event. Building communities cultivates brand affinity and brand loyalty among your users. How you do that depends on your industry, business, desired results, and corporate culture. Your employees must be empowered - and trusted - to interact directly with customers. Your corporate culture must be aligned with your SMM strategy. You must know what you want to achieve with your SMM strategy. You must not follow a B2C strategy if you are a B2B company. IBM’s conclusion from their SMM learnings is Business Model + Corporate Culture + Desired Values = Social Media Marketing Success. Part 2 will feature case studies of successful SMM strategies.
After attending PayPal’s Developer Conference this week, I left with some conclusions as it relates to commerce on the web. First, PayPal will continue to dominate the online payment market because: 1) It has more years of experience in dealing with fraud, security, international, and regulatory challenges than any other provider; 2) By opening up the PayPal platform to developers, they have effectively expanded their available market by enabling “new uses and new users”; 3) The added benefit of opening the platform is that PayPal learns more from the real-world applications which enables them to improve their products more quickly; 4) Virtual currency, micropayments, recurring billing are all growing and enabling new business models that are more viable than “traditional” online commerce (E.g. physical goods); 5) Social commerce will also expand businesses and consumers go to “trusted” marketplaces such as Facebook and PayPal’s Adaptive Payments will enable commerce applications within these applications.