Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

I have to admit that the inspiration for this post came from something one of my clients reported their Facebook rep told them --- that Facebook is not a platform for driving sales.  It's all about buying impressions for your brand but it's not a place where users want to engage with brand or consume their content so it shouldn't be considered as a sales driver.

My reaction was along the lines of: Wait…WHAT?  Is that how they're selling ads these days?  And people are actually buying them?

Shouldn't the ultimate goal of any marketing campaign be to drive the business's bottom line -- otherwise, why invest a dime?  Sure, tracking direct, measureable sales from social channels is much more difficult than from other digital platforms like banner ads that drive to an e-commerce site or emails that include a unique and trackable coupon code that consumers have access to when they're in the checkout line. But if Facebook doesn't ultimately impact your business's bottom line, why are brands still investing on the platform?...

The first thing you need to understand before you think of marketing on Facebook is the unique opportunities it offers and the basic difference between this and other media. Like you would never use a radio commercial for a TV ad, you cannot market on Facebook, the way you use other media for advertising.

Facebook is not a platform for ‘hard sell’People perceive Facebook as a platform when they share their stories, jokes, videos and generally relax. Therefore to appeal to this group you too have to join in their conversations rather than act like an outsider who has come to sell something aggressively...

Are you looking for ways to enhance your Facebook marketing? Do you want to capture the attention of more prospects and customers? The right Facebook tools can make the job easier by saving you time and optimizing your Facebook marketing efforts.

According to John McDermott at Digiday, Instagram is conducting a test (yes, for now it’s just a test) with Mercedes-Benz that allows them to target Facebook users who previously saw one of its Instagram ads. While this development is eye-opening in and of itself, as it gives hints into Facebook plans on returning their $1B investment, it also shows Facebook’s commitment to transforming how advertising not only can coexist with social media, but thrive and break into new levels of adoption.

What stands out the most to me is how inherent behavioral characteristics seen on both Facebook and Instagram are being aligned with their natural fit in the conversion funnel. As noted by McDermott, Instagram’s product naturally promotes behavior more conducive to the top of the funnel, where brand awareness comes into play. If Instagram is committed to preserving the user experience that allowed them to break 200 million users, it behooves them to preserve this characteristic of their product and not to “forcefully” incorporate more direct-response elements like call-to-action buttons, etc....