Here’s a screen shot from Vin Diesel’s Facebook Page back in May 2009, where he was at a “mere” 3.5 million fans. [...]]]>

While names like Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga are synonymous with great social media marketing, the true master is no one other than the Fast Five star, Vin Diesel.

Here’s a screen shot from Vin Diesel’s Facebook Page back in May 2009, where he was at a “mere” 3.5 million fans. Back then, the only person bigger than him on Facebook was President Obama.

According to AllFacebook.com, as of 5/9/2011 Vin Diesel’s Facebook Page had a total  of 23,110,014 likes, with a daily growth of 50,704 and a weekly growth of 348,768.

Here’s what you can learn from Vin Diesel about Facebook Page management.

Do It Because You Enjoy It

Every single week we hear about a new social media platform and how it is going to change everything. Again.

Vin chose Facebook and he worked only Facebook. Why? Because he enjoys it.

In his own words to Maxim:

The only thing that they didn’t talk about in the movie The Social Network was what was driving people to Facebook. And they forgot to mention that they had a guy named Vin Diesel. A guy who didn’t do a lot of press. I was always very, very private. Facebook became an opportunity to connect with fans for the first time. Now we’re in this new world where it is all there on the Internet for you to play with, and you can let people in as much as you want. For me it was very therapeutic.

Takeaway: Why would you start a Facebook Page unless you really enjoyed it? If you just run it like a robot, it is going to truly show.

Set a Goal for Yourself

We all know that our Facebook Pages have a goal. But what about a goal for ourselves?

For Vin, it was to stop smoking. He explains how it happened:

Back when I only had, like, 100,000 friends, my girlfriend said if I got more fans than Barack Obama I had to quit smoking. I had six million by January 2010, and it was all because I was communicating with people honestly.

Takeaway: Work a personal goal into your Facebook Page management. Empower this task to improve yourself in a positive way (e.g. lose weight, stop smoking, etc.).

Give People What They Want

For Vin Diesel fans: pics of Vin when he was a kid and when he still had hair on his head.

He encourages:

You should see some great pictures of me as a kid with hair on my page. Get in there. Click on those bitches. Look around.

I didn’t edit the cursing to show that he gives people what they want: an unedited, true communication channel with Vin Diesel.

Proof of that is that just one single wall post from him can get over 90,000 likes and over 12,000 comments.

Takeaway: Give people what they want.

Prove that You Listen to Your Followers

How did the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson became involved with The Fast and The Furious franchise?

Answer: Vin Diesel’s Facebook Page.

He’s a great guy. We’d been talking about doing something together for 10 years. Frankly, his role was designed for Tommy Lee Jones or Josh Brolin. But this actually started when someone posted a note on my fan page saying Dwayne and I should work together. I read that comment to Justin Lin, the Fast Five director, and it just went from there.

Takeaway: When you hear a great idea from your followers, don’t just say that “you’ll look into it”. Make it happen.

Check out Vin Diesel’s Facebook Page at: http://www.facebook.com/vindiesel

–

Right off the bat I’m going to have to do something pretty controversial. Something that’ll get a lot of lips twitching in raw anger. Something [...]]]>

Kate, author of Arguing with a Doughnut, presents an epic fight to the death between the two social networking giants.

–

Right off the bat I’m going to have to do something pretty controversial. Something that’ll get a lot of lips twitching in raw anger. Something that will FOREVER CHANGE THE WAY YOU — whatever: I’m taking five bajibizzillion points from both of these businesses, which means I’m abandoning scores completely because everyone’s already a loser.

Why am I doing this? Well, my friend! I am sending the Facebook and the Twitter plunging into a negative swirling abyss because they’re both just clever, tricksy ways to help advertisers find you.

In round two, we’re looking at something very minimal that bugs the crap out of me. On Twitter? There’s no “like” button. There’s really not much way to interact with your “followers” at all, which kind of means that you aren’t really following them just as they aren’t following you. There’s no feedback!

The third round sees us discussing the past tense of the verb of each platform.

You have ‘facebooked’.

Simple. Easy. No discussion.

And then you have ….twittered? tweeted? twa..t… no.

Don’t make your product have a bazillion different ‘action words’.

Now we come to the final round. The ultra round. The round in which we examine…

WHO USES THESE GOOFY ASS THINGS.

Oh, right. The same people.

Kate is the author of Arguing with a Doughnut, a blog that prides itself on being really silly. Please do swing by and check it out for all-original content!

]]> http://idaconcpts.com/2010/09/21/facebook-vs-twitter-uberbattle/feed/ 6 http://idaconcpts.com/2010/04/14/how-facebook-does-e-mail-newsletters-iii/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-facebook-does-e-mail-newsletters-iii http://idaconcpts.com/2010/04/14/how-facebook-does-e-mail-newsletters-iii/#comments Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:19:22 +0000 Damian Davila http://idaconcpts.com/?p=1211 This is the 3rd part of a series analyzing the successes and failures of  Facebook in the art of writing and implementing e-mail newsletters.

In the first part, we analyzed an example of a Facebook e-mail newsletter that was a great example of how to implement permission marketing, how [...]]]>

This is the 3rd part of a series analyzing the successes and failures of  Facebook in the art of writing and implementing e-mail newsletters.

In the first part, we analyzed an example of a Facebook e-mail newsletter that was a great example of how to implement permission marketing, how to avoid the brochure mentality, and how to do seamless product placement.

In the second part, we analyzed the mistake that Facebook is doing by  by using a no-reply e-mail and hiding away its contact form from its users.

In this third part, we will discuss how Facebook Research did right and wrong when sending a recent survey e-mail on Tuesday, Apr 13, 2010 at 6:04 PM (HST).

About the E-mail

As you can see this e-mail contains 13 lines of text and only 3 links: one for unsubscribing from future e-mails, one for the survey link, and one for the Facebook privacy policies.

The Good

From a text copy point of view, the e-mail is well written: short and straight to the point. Facebook makes it clear why they are sending you the e-mail (“you’ve advertised with Facebook in the past”) and provides a link to its privacy policies.

This e-mail is actionable: take the survey! You can explain the purpose of the e-mail in one sentence: Facebook wants your feedback about your user experience with Facebook Ads. How do you measure the success of the e-mail? Simple: how many people click on the survey link and complete the survey.

If Facebook is smart about its e-mail design, then probably they would have done some A/B testing to test which e-mail design has the better click-through rate and conversion rate (in this case: complete the survey).

The Bad

Facebook Research does not use a no-reply e-mail unlike the Facebook Ads team:

The e-mail address from Facebook Research is: research@feedback.facebook.com

The problem with no-repply e-mails was first pointed out by Seth Godin in his book, Permission Marketing, back in the 1990s, and yet still, 20 years later, there are still a lot of organizations (e.g. Facebook) using this conversation-killer e-mail address.

By having a direct e-mail address, Facebook Research is providing the opportunity for conversations with its users, which is critical for a company in the business of social media.

Until..you try to actually send an e-mail to Facebook Research!

If you write to research@feedback.facebook.com, this is what happens:

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

research@feedback.facebook.com

Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 User does not exists, and you are not relayed (state 14).

Masking a no-reply e-mail to give the appearance of being willing to engage in conversations is a not only a terrible marketing mistake but also a horrible social practice.

The Extremely Ugly

Here’s what happens when you click on the survey link:

Bad Facebook. No cookie for you!

Let’s play devil’s advocate and actually give Facebook the benefit of the doubt, and think about some possible explanations for this:

• Facebook Research received way too many survey responses, so it decided to pull the plug on the survey.
• The server that hosts the survey is under maintenance.
• The person responsible for the e-mail was just having a pretty bad day.

Unfortunately, no matter what excuse Facebook comes up with, it should have either informed the recipients of this e-mail about the error (e.g. server down, wrong link) or about the thank-you-but-we-have-enough responses via an e-mail or image posted after clicking on the link.

Conclusion

Make sure that your e-mails are read by at least 3 people so that they can bullet-proof it by checking broken URLs, mispellings, or any other type of errors.

]]> http://idaconcpts.com/2010/04/14/how-facebook-does-e-mail-newsletters-iii/feed/ 2 http://idaconcpts.com/2010/04/09/is-facebook-the-right-marketing-channel-for-you/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=is-facebook-the-right-marketing-channel-for-you http://idaconcpts.com/2010/04/09/is-facebook-the-right-marketing-channel-for-you/#comments Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:59:11 +0000 Damian Davila http://idaconcpts.com/?p=1205 For a while organizations hesitated to jump on the Facebook bandwagon.

A couple brave organizations ventured into creating a Facebook Profile, Group or Page to manage its online presence on this social network.

However nowadays everybody and, even your mother, is present on Facebook.

On [...]]]>

For a while organizations hesitated to jump on the Facebook bandwagon.

A couple brave organizations ventured into creating a Facebook Profile, Group or Page to manage its online presence on this social network.

However nowadays everybody and, even your mother, is present on Facebook.

On a daily basis, I receive questions at @idaconcpts, on whether or not a certain organization should have a presence on Facebook.  My answer is always the same, it depends.

It depends on:

1) Your objectives.

2) Your target audience.

On this post, we’ll address the second point: your target audience.

Know Your Target Audience

Before even thinking about spending marketing dollars on anything, you need to develop a clear idea of what are the traits and characteristics. At a very basic level, you need to know your audience’s:

• Geographic location
• Age
• Gender
• Race (if applicable)

If you don’t know these basic traits from your target audience, you’re in big trouble.

Yes, the stop-everything-and-fix-this-right-now kind of problem.

Even though you would love that every single person in the world buys your product or service, this is unrealistic. You need to develop a more clear idea of who is buying your product or service. The ultimate goal is to develop a couple of customer profiles, however this is a topic for another post. For now, we will work on the basis that you need to find these 4 basic traits of your target audience.

Let’s analyze each one of these traits, starting with geographic location.

1. Your Target Audience’s Geographic Location

From the map above, it becomes clear that at least 10.3% of the population of any state in the U.S. has a Facebook account. This already should give you an idea of what is the maximum of people that you can reach via Facebook.

From that number, you should be aware that on the average marketing campaigns have a success rate of 1 – 2% (gasp!). Just multiply your target audience’s Facebook presence by 2% and you have created a target number for your Facebook campaign.

For example, Hawaii has a 2008 population estimate of 1,288,198. I don’t have a specific percentage from the graph above, but I am going to be very conservative and will say that 17% of Hawaii’s population is on Facebook.

So, 1,288,198 x 17% x 2% = about 4,300 persons.

Don’t get caught on the exact number, rather on the repercussions of your target number.

However, this is just the beginning.

2. Your Target’s Audience Age

Remember that 4,300 number?

Well, here’s where that number starts getting smaller real fast.

From the bar graph above, we can see that most the Facebook population is in either the 18-25, 26-34, and 35-44.  This fact has a lot of repercusions for your business decision whether or not to use Facebook.

If your product is aimed to the 55+ crowd, then Facebook may not be a good channel. However, this might not be true, ONLY if you know your audience correctly. For example, consider the decision of choosing a fun gift for grandma, say a printed photostrip from Wink. Then your target audience is not grandma, but their granddaughters and grandsons on the 18-25, 26-34, and 35-44 age groups.

It’s all about knowing your true target audience.

Its geographic location, its age and it’s gender.

3. Your Target Audiences’ Gender

This is another key trait that you need to know about your audience.

If your whole staff are guys and you’re marketing entirely to women, then you need to put yourself in the shoes of the ladies more! There is no one-size fits all approach.

Knowing the gender of your target audience in advance, will allow you to prepare better on, for example, how to interact with them through Facebook wall post.

Least but not last, let’s discuss about your target audience’s race.

4. Your Target Audience’s Race

If your organization’s target audience has a specific race, such as the Voto Latino initiative for the 2010 U.S. Census, then it is very important to consider race as one of the factors to consider on your decision of whether or not to use Facebook as your marketing channel.

Conclusion: Set a Target and Evaluate

Let’s use the Voto Latino initiative as an example. This is a good example because theoritically speaking this organization would like to reach every single Latino in the United States, so that makes the calculation of a target number much easier. The Voto Latino initiative could have used the data presented here and determined that its target audience on Facebook (all Latinos in the U.S. using Facebook) is about 5 million.

From those 5 million, we would expect a 2% success rate, which means our number would be 100,000. If you take a look at their Facebook Page, as of 04/09/10, it only has 4,284.

Is this a success? Is this a failure?

The answer is that Voto Latino should have a more specific target audience: throw in geographic location into the equation. I don’t have the specific numbers of their Facebook Page fans, but I would focus on the states (cities, even better!) that have responded better to their campaign to refocus their Facebook marketing efforts.

From obsessed Facebook users to so called social media socialites to marketers, everybody wants to find out what is popular on this social networks.

Finally, thanks to Chitika, Inc. they all can put down the magical 8-ball and have some guidelines.

In October 2009, we analyzed an e-mail newsletter from Facebook titled Ads Manager Announcement that was directed to the  Facebook Ads users. This newsletter is a great example of how to implement permission marketing, how to avoid the brochure mentality, and how to [...]]]>

Does Facebook roll you the welcome mat?

In October 2009, we analyzed an e-mail newsletter from Facebook titled Ads Manager Announcement that was directed to the  Facebook Ads users. This newsletter is a great example of how to implement permission marketing, how to avoid the brochure mentality, and how to do seamless product placement.

Below is a snapshot of another newsletter release for Facebook Ads users on January 19, 2010:

The newsletter design is good: short and informative.

However, there is one big problem with this newsletter: the no-reply e-mail address from Facebook.

The Problem with a No-reply E-mail

Conversations matter.

Yes, they really do. Think about this.

Would you want to talk with somebody who introduces himself as “Hi, I’m not interested in what you think, but let me tell you about this!”?

Probably not.

Scratch that. Absolutely not!

Facebook Ads is doing exactly that by using a no-reply e-mail:

The problem with no-repply e-mails was first pointed out by Seth Godin in his book, Permission Marketing, back in the 1990s, and yet still, 20 years later, there are still a lot of organizations (e.g. Facebook) using this conversation-killer e-mail address.

What about the Help Center mention?

The newsletter’s link takes you to the Facebook Help Center with a list of FAQs about Facebook Ads:

Still Facebook does not want to hear from you.

Don’t think so?

The contact form is buried on the website.

Here’s how it looks like:

If there is a way to reach Facebook directly with your question, why don’t make it simple for users to do so.  Facebook wouldn’t like that they needed to spend 10 minutes trying to figure out how to e-mail each one of its members, right?

Conclusion:  when doing e-mail newsletters make sure to make it as easy as possible for your e-mail recipients to contact you.

More info about Facebook and E-mail Marketing:

• How Facebook does E-mail Newsletters
• How HR Professionals Analyze your Facebook Profile
• E-mail Permission Marketing: It Works!
• E-mail Permission Marketing Fundamentals
• How to Measure the CTR of your E-mail Permission Marketing Campaign using Google Analytics
• A Guide to Permission Marketing
• Permission E-mail Marketing Polling with LinkedIn Polls

About the author: Since 2007 Damian Davila Rojas lives at Honolulu, Hawaii doing marketing, public relations, and web analytics. His research interests are viral marketing and how to use web metrics to make better strategic business decisions. Follow Damian on Twitter at @idaconcpts.

This newsletter is a great example of how to implement permission marketing, how to avoid the brochure mentality, and how to do seamless product placement.