Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Last week, Kevin Colleran, one of the first employees of Facebook and current Director of National Sales, stopped by Organic's NY office to answer a few questions. As we notice more and more companies jumping into the social media pool, we asked him to stop by to give a state of the union on Facebook.

Here are some highlights from our chat with Kevin about Facebook:

1. Brand pages...everyone from Starbucks to Obama have a page now. What's a little known fact about them?
Since they're free to setup, then companies sometimes build robust experiences - namely in the tabs. But, robust features don't outweigh quality content. At the end of the day, the vast majority of your fans do not continuously visit the fan page but will see the newly posted content in their News Feeds. And, with increased adoption of Become a Fan buttons, many never have to go to a brand page to express their affinity.

2. Over the past two years, Facebook has made significant changes to the user experience. What's been the result?
Many people visit Facebook every other day online. And with the mobile phone applications and mobile site, they're visiting in more places. You'd be surprised to know that 90% of the time people spend on Facebook is concentrated on the homepage newsfeed.

3. In terms of moderating conversation, what should we know?
First, know that all communications must occur in public. We don't allow brands to private message fans like individuals can private message each other. We block private messaging to avoid spamming. Second, by default, comments on the fan page Wall are turned on. So, when a brand posts something, then members have the right to comment. The only way for comments not to appear is if they're taken down by the page administrator(s). If you don't have a dedicated staff to monitor the page, then find a vendor that can auto-moderate by rejecting inappropriate comments and holding other comments until they've been manually approved. Expect these services to start at $2-3K monthly.

4. Should we remove pages created by people that bear the name and/or logo of our brand?
At first, it may seem that these user-generated pages are good - after all, who doesn't want users to generate positive content for your brand. But, things can go two ways. What if they start saying inappropriate things? What if they start misrepresenting themselves as employees? At the end of the day, these user-generated pages are liabilities. And as much as it may pain you to shut-down one of these pages, is the liability worth it?

We recommend brands migrate the fans of user-generated brand pages to the brand's official brand page. For current members of these pages, it's a seamless experience. How do you think Coca-Cola got to be the #2 brand on Facebook with over 3MM fans... it's mostly because they combined all the user-generated pages.

5. I'm noticing more and more brands integrating Facebook into advertising. For instance, T.G.I. Friday's is running television spots in which they've promised to give free hamburgers when their page reaches 500K fans. What are other ways to bring attention to your fan page?
Here's three things - ranging from free to paid. The cheapest way is to use a "Become a Fan" button on your homepage. If someone is already logged into Facebook, then clicking on the button adds them as a fan without having to leave your site. Second, you can put a link to your Facebook page in your communications - emails, newsletters, etc. Lastly, consider buying a roadblock on Facebook. We've noticed great success in growing the number of fans on pages with this type of media buy.

For more information about marketing in social media, contact socialmedia@organic.com. For examples of marketing on Facebook, visit http://www.facebook.com/marketing.

Kai Wright