Its NOT just another marketing channel

Herein, I do not talk about feelings, humanity, the good of the universe. I am just saying that if you are a marketer and you want to do something social – even if you dont really get it – you must at least understand that social marketing is not transactional like advertising. Advertising model is I brag, or dangle a jewel hopefully you click and buy. That’s it.

If you want a SOCIAL campaign, however, you need to earn attention by speaking to a mutual interest between you and the people you want to engage. And then, you have to assume that they aren’t going to just see your website and buy your product. If you’ve done a good enough job, they’ll be willing to engage or participate and invite you to let them know when more good stuff happens.

That’s the pattern you want to set up. HEre are a few slides in which I talk not about the philosophy (for a change) but the most basic mechanics of marketing in the social world. I plan to follow up with great examples of this in action. If you have some – or others that you think prove my simple story wrong, please share them with me. Thanks.

Campaigns as patterns

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the most powerful marketing feature on facebook

Its brilliant. viral marketing is now passive. its voyeur marketing. its marketing nirvana.

The News Feed on Facebook. I “friend” people I like and/or admire (or who like and/or admire me). I visit my home page, and I get snippets of what they are doing. Joe joined a new group or made a new friend or became a “fan” of a new brand or product. “Gee”, I say to myself, “Joe’s a pretty savvy guy, I wonder what that group is, who that person is, what that brand is”.

And there it is. I’m checking it out because Joe checked it out, and Joe didn’t have to take the active role of advocate. I am interested in what he does, so I can follow it passively.

I’m not sure if this was the original intent of the News Feed, but I think its the very most powerful form of viral marketing I’ve seen. Why? Because Joe doesn’t need to take the step of endorsing something. It’s his interest in something that is conveyed. And since I’m interested in what he’s interested in… it works. And I don’t need to become some smarmy “brand ambassador”. And as a marketing person, I don’t need to go find some way to incent or create some a “viral feature” that doesn’t really match my audience. Its gorgeous.

Even better! The Facebook Beacon application. Its a fantastic opportunity. I’m integrating this into my client’s project TODAY. The Facebook Beacon lets you make actions on your site feed into the News Feed on Facebook. Yes. If someone buys something, watches a video (I hope this works, I’m going to try it later and let you know), posts a comment or what have you, it will post to the News Feed. Yes, they’ve made it opt-out and privacy respecting. But the facebook audience is really into sharing. They don’t opt-out in droves.

So – what you get is a tool. If you create engagement on your site, you’ll be spreading the news of that engagement among your users’ friends. Without that user needing to do anything.

It’s perfect. For companies that have been trying to reach a younger demographic through social networking, and have had some trouble knowing where to start, it provides a great, low effort, low risk opportunity. I am going to be working with this quite a bit over the next few weeks, and I’ll report the results.