Facebook for Marketers: Things You should know about Facebook

by Andrew KinnearBack in 2004, when a young Mark Zuckerburg was a student at Harvard, him and his friends thought it was a good idea to have a way for Harvard students to find other Harvard students. Based on the Freshman 'Face Book', (like a yearbook, except given out at the beginning of the year) Zuckerburg released what is now Facebook.com and yet another way to network socially, was born. Facebook has over 60 million active members as of today, roughly the same population as the United Kingdom. Doing all the things that most people that age would do off-line (chatting, sharing media and opinions about different topics, becoming part of a group, planning events) Facebook users now do these same things int eh virtual world, and do it much faster, in higher volume, and for free. Like any good pool of potential brains and wallets, it didn't take long to get the corporate world interested. Sponsored pages, advertising, and other methods of involvement have quickly changed the landscape of the traditional marketer. The following are a few things that you should know about the fastest growing social network on the web: Who's using Facebook? From February 2004 when it got off the ground as "thefacebook", Facebook has grown steadily in popularity and user base, and it now has more than 60 million active users. In contrast, MySpace (bought last year by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for $580 Mil) has a total of 300 million users, although not all are active (“active” users are those who have logged in within the last 30 days). According to Facebook’s statistics page, the number of active users has doubled every 6 months, with 250,000 new users joining each day since January 2007. This translates to 3% growth per week. According to comScore, an internet ranking company, Facebook is the sixth-most trafficked site in the United States, with the average user spending 20 minutes a day actively using Facebook by uploading photos, sending messages, or even having discussions within a group. The '18 to 25' demographic is 52% of Facebook’s userbase, averaging 30 to 45 minutes each day on the site. Who Else Is Joining the Facebook Network? Most of the newest Facebook users are no longer in university/college age group, while users 25+ are now the fastest growing demographic for the social networking site. Although most of the users in this age group have graduated from college, they are still active on the site. Graduates also use Facebook to stay in touch with old friends, often using the Groups tool to invite former roommates and friends to upcoming events like reunions, weddings, and other parties. What is there to see on Facebook?From a 'topics for discussion' perspective, or 'unique interests' perspective, Facebook has it all. Users can type "cold fusion" or "NCAA Basketball" into the search box and get up to 500+ profiles displayed, starting with people in that persons network (a primary group that they join when they first sign up). If a user who belongs to the University of Toronto network is searching for basketball fans, the results returned would be people in the UofT network first, followed by those in the other networks. Recently, with the opening of Facebook's 'platform' to developers late last year, the proliferation of 'Applications' has run rampant. Everything from balancing your cheque book, to killing zombies, to collecting kittens, or sharing your favourite Starbucks drink is a part of the application suite. Users can invite other users, and virally, the applications are spread through the networks. Some companies and marketers have used this as the basis for their entry into the Facebook world, and some get brought along for the ride just by having a popular brand. Starbucks, for example, had an application built in their honour that lets users share the fact that they enjoy 'grande caramel machiattos' with everyone who visits their profile page. More on this below... Why do people use Facebook?Most people are creepers. They like to know what people are 'up to' even if they don't really like that person. Facebook lets users connect with old friends, college buddies, colleagues, new acquaintances , or even that girl you met at the bar last night whose name you can only remember started with a V. People join to have a place to share their photos, catch up with old friends, stay in touch with current friends, meet new friends, share similar interests, fight for similar causes, and (to quote UofT PhD candidate Rhonda McEwen) to be a "part of the Homophily". Homophily is a scientific term referring to the thought that 'birds of a feather flock together'. People like learning about other people, especially when it's really all about them. Users do not typically go to Facebook to find products to buy, or brands to follow. How does Facebook use 3rd party 'Apps'? There are over 10,000 independent, non-Facebook created 'Applications'. According to the Facebook Developers website (http://developers.facebook.com), the software development kit (SDK) allows users to create programs and post them on Facebook. Developers can create “applications that deeply integrate into a user’s Facebook experience.” With the Facebook Developers API, you can add social context to your application by utilizing profile, friend, photo, and event data.” What does this mean for Brands and Marketers? The market is ripe, saturated, but not necessarily beyond entry. Most of the 3rd party apps are things that are 'Just for Fun'. The JFF apps like killing zombies, or mixing drinks, or sending rainbows aren't very useful-- on the other hand, application that lets users plot all their favourite travel destinations may be a great idea for travel companies, airlines, hotel chains, etc (it's been done...) Why Is Facebook the #1 photo sharing site, even with competitors like Flickr and Google's Picasa? The first reason is ease of use. Facebook has made it deadly simple with their interface. Uploading photos is as simple as clicking a checkbox beside a grid of thumbnail-sized pictures while the user decides which he or she wants to upload. According to comScore, Facebook is the No. 1 photo sharing application on the web, with more than 14 million photos uploaded daily. In comparison, Flickr, the No. 2 photo sharing application, averages 3 million to 5 million uploads a day. The other reason is that everyone loves the vanity. When a user uploads a picture, they also TAG the photo with all the people in the picture, and if those people are on Facebook, they and their friends are notified via the 'news feed' and everyone gets to see it. This is truly photo sharing. Other photo sites make it easy for one person to upload and share, but those viewing don't contribute to the experience at all. What can an Advertiser do on Facebook?Imagine you're an event promoter. Weeks before you arrive in a city on a national tour, you can buy ads for that particular network informing them of the upcoming event. You can get users to join your sponsored group to get updates and VIP passes. You can post Facebook Events that users can add to their calendar, you can have them become 'Fans' (that's actually what it's called) of your 'page' (that's actually what it's called)--- all of which will be broadcast to THEIR friends, spreading your message like a virus through their network. As you change cities, you keep the regional momentum going, without suffering from the traditional national fatigue of a chain of events like this. There are also banners to be purchased by those marketers not as adventurous. What kind of interest groups are on Facebook? If you can think of it, someone has likely started a group to find others who think about it! There are millions of groups on Facebook, which run the gamut from political groups (Liberal, Conservative, Communist) to current events (Climate Change, Darfur, Kyoto) to self-proclaimed pointless groups (The Largest Facebook Group Ever, I'll shave my head if we have 100k users by Thursday). Within these various groups, users can post photos and videos (if the group creator allows it) and write on the group’s “wall,” (a type of forum) to speak with others who share their interests. How does Facebook handle Privacy? Facebook has had a few slip-ups in the past year as far as decisions around what to share with users, what should be an opt-in, and who gets to see what. That being said, they have one of the most versatile privacy options interfaces on the web. Almost every part of their experience with Facebook, the 3rd party application developers, and partners of Facebook-- are flexible. Want to open yourself up to the world? No problem. Want to have a profile, but not let anyone find you or see your information? Also doable. Even the subsections of the users profile can be selectively turned on or off. User visibility to others is separated to All networks, All friends, my friends, me, no one-- for almost every part of the experience. Where Facebook falls down is in their ability to communicate some of these features to users. When Facebook Beacon was launched last year (Beacon is a system where partner sites would share purchase data with users friends) the system assumed an opt-in status, instead of 'asking' users to opt-in. It resulted in some broken hearts, so sharing of weird data, and overall a PR hassle for Facebook execs. Zuckerburg personally apologized to users for the fiasco. Facebook at a Glance The sixth-most trafficked site in the United States (according to comScore) has the following: • More than 64 million active users • An average of 250,000 new users registered each day • More than 55,000 regional, work-related, collegiate, and high school networks • More than 14 million photos uploaded daily • More than 65 billion page views per month • More than half of users are outside college • The fastest growing demographic is 25 and older • The U.S. has the most users, followed by the U.K. with more than 8 million active users, and then Canada with more than 7 million active users. *Statistics from www.facebook.com in mid-February 08. Some of these data, ideas, and examples came from sources on the web.Contact me andrew ~at~ andrewkinnear.comSocial Media, Online Experience, Etc http://blog.andrewkinnear.com