In a recent discussion with ISA leaders regarding how to lessen the number of emails it sends members, the topic of Facebook fan pages came up. The context of this discussion was focused on how ISA could be at least as effective at marketing its publications while reducing the number of emails it sends. I was asked to explain specifically how a fan page compares with email marketing, and I came up with seven advantages:
1) “Opting In” vs. “Not Opting Out”
People must take an affirmative action to “become a fan,” which says a lot more than “I choose not to opt out.” From a marketer’s perspective, these become your top shelf, number one, gold plated prospects. And you treat them that way.
2) Marketing Upside
When someone becomes a fan, all of their friends see it. This has tremendous marketing “up side.” When someone doesn’t opt out of emails, nobody knows and there is zero additional up side.
3) Build a Community
Fans can interact with one another on the fan page, providing book reviews, answering questions, talking about their favorites, etc. This is the very essence of Web 2.0.
4) Analytics
Facebook provides detailed statistics with regard to interactions that occur on fan pages. This makes is very easy to quantify the value of the page over time. Typical email marketing solutions provide counts of the number of times a message is read or a link is clicked. However, Facebook has additional metrics that can measure interactivity and “buzz.”
5) Reach
Fan pages are open to everyone on Facebook (that’s 325 million users) – not just your email database.
6) Demographics
The fastest growing age demographic on Facebook is 35 to 45 year olds. This is a critical demographic for many organizations.
7) Cost
Fan pages are FREE. Enough said.
Let me know if I missed something.
Spot on! On an endeavor for some side work, my inbound marketing strategy uses Facebook heavily. While a blog is at the centre of my efforts, having the blog automatically update Twitter and Facebook is key. Many of my readers will not comment on the blog posts (even though it receives about 1,000 hits a day) but will comment on Twitter or Facebook.
And this makes sense for this group. They are already logged into Facebook and a wall comment on the post allows them to share more of their own online identity than simply a gravatar on a blog. It feeds into their egos more easily.
Plus, people are on Facebook more. It’s like placing a billboard ad. Would you do so on a road less traveled or on a highway that people are spending a few hours a week on?
Thanks for a succinct post about an very important (and easy) tool to add to your marketing strategy.
Thanks, David. I started to transition my own communications platform off of email and into RSS over the past year and a half. I now find myself migrating some of that from RSS to Facebook and Twitter. For most, Facebook is still a very personal space and I think lots of marketers still aren’t fully appreciating what a privilege it is to be allowed into that space. I see it as the online equivalent of allowing someone into your home for a few minutes to chat. Powerful stuff.