[wire] stone

Generating Awareness

In Part 1 of our series Your Brand Won:  how to execute winning promotions on Facebook, we outlined a framework consumer brands should prioritize when defining promotion strategies and tactics for generating fan engagement in Facebook.

Here is Part II, where we discuss the importance of and how to create broad-scale awareness in Facebook. If your Brand is looking to generate a large fan base, or introduce a new product or service, [wire] stone strongly urges you to consider creating an entertaining sweepstakes. Why? Because the goal is to do something that reaches the largest number of people possible AND make it easy for people to engage with relevant and rewarding marketing content. Sweepstakes are great for exactly these reasons – people engage with them with little effort and share them with friends just as easily. Other promotions, such as contests that require people to submit photos, write a story, or create a video require more work – some people are willing to do this kind of stuff, but most will only participate this deeply if or when they feel more deeply connected with the actual product or service…so you don’t want to lose them by making them do too many things before they’re even engaged with the very things you want them to know about.

Here’s how to do sweepstakes promotions the right way on Facebook:

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So, the prevailing winds are blowing against Facebook. Here’s just one of the current streams – “A poll by the Associated Press and CNBC reveals that 83% of Facebook users report never or hardly ever clicking on ads or sponsored content, despite frequently visiting and spending lots of time on the site, which translates to a conundrum for advertisers.”

This is exactly the kind of uninformed analysis we would expect at this moment in time. It’s the first step in the now-public process of reviewing exactly what Facebook is versus what it is not now that the IPO is done. The fact that display ads are performing poorly on the platform would appear to the uninitiated as conclusive evidence that Facebook is a failure at connecting people with brands, or driving people to actually buy something. But, this theory assumes that Facebook is just like any other web domain, that it’s just another web site. However, dive even one level deeper – let alone into the multitudes of engagement layers currently in play for nearly one billion members – and a far more complex and compelling picture emerges.

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Score one for engagement.

The recent news that GM plans to halt spending on roughly $10 million in annual Facebook advertising is certainly bad news from Facebook’s point of view, especially since it came during the lead up to their IPO. But long term, this trend will be a win for users and brands.

If you read the headlines about this story, it seems as though GM has decided Facebook is not the right platform for the company to be connecting with consumers – but this couldn’t be further from the truth. GM has stated they will continue  to invest heavily in content on the platform, which is key when it comes to connecting with consumers.

While display advertising is key to Facebook’s business, it is clear Facebook realizes that the most successful marketing on the site comes in the form of engaging content – not display ads. To see this, you only need to look as far as Facebook Studio, a site Facebook created to, “celebrate the agencies and marketers that are driving business growth through real connections and authentic conversations made possible with Facebook” [emphasis mine]. Doesn’t exactly scream “display campaign”.

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