Your Facebook Strategy: Opportunities of a Ready-Made Platform

Slide 2: Facebook Offers a Ready-Made Marketing Platform Jeremiah Owyang Senior Analyst, Social Computing Dec 5, 2007 Keynote Presentation for Web Community Forum

Slide 3: Theme Facebook, a ready-made Marketing platform, offers a vast toolset (with challenges) but brands must first develop a strategy 3 Entire contents © 2007 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 4: Agenda – 1. Why Facebook? 2. Facebook offers a bevy of opportunities 3. Challenges of Facebook Platform 4. Develop a Strategy 4 Entire contents © 2007 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 6: Timeline Launch: Harvard/College Only Open to Public Pages and Social Ads 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Application Platform 6 Entire contents © 2007 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 7: Facebook keeps growing • Social Utility • 40-50Million users • 134-200% growth or more in last year • over 40% are over age 35 • 6000 (Updated: 10,000 now) applications deployed • Valued at $15 Billion • Average visitor stays 20 minutes • Domination North America, Middle East • College Educated • White Collar 7 Entire contents © 2007 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 8: Facebook could eclipse MySpace Early 09 200 Million Friendster = 25 million | 65% Growth Facebook = 40-50 million | 200% Growth MySpace = 120 million | 72% Growth My Space Friendster Facebook Q4 2002 2003 2004 2008? 8 Entire contents © 2007 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 10: Members use Social Networks for Communication See what my friends are up to: 86% Sent a message to someone: 79% Posted/updated my profile: 70% Looked at profiles of people I didn’t know: 65% Searched for someone that I used to know: 59% Send a friend/connection request: 53% Listened to music: 47% Read a blog or journal: 51% Wrote on someone’s profile page (e.g. wrote on 55% a wall, posted a testimonial): Watched a video: 40% Base: US online adult social networking site users, Source: North American Technographics Media And Marketing Online Survey, Q3 2007 10 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 12: Facebook, why should I care? 1. Rapid Adoption and Demographics 2. Communities are important 3. Rich User and Network Data 12 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 16: Facebook, why should I care? 1. Rapid Adoption and Demographics 2. Communities are important 3. Rich User and Network Data 4. Information Spreads Quickly 16 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 18: Facebook, why should I care? 1. Rapid Adoption and Demographics 2. Communities are important 3. Rich User and Network Data 4. Information Spreads Quickly 5. Other Platform Features 18 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 22: Agenda – 1. Why Facebook? 2. Facebook offers a bevy of opportunities 3. Challenges of Facebook 4. Develop a Strategy 22 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 23: The Many Opportunities for Marketers • Advertising » Banner Ads » Contextual//NewsFeed/Flyer Ads » Social Ads • Marketing » Facebook Pages and Sponsored Groups » Beacon • Word of Mouth/Interaction » Applications • Intelligence » Profiles and Network information » Public Groups 23 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 29: Case Study: Wal-Mart’s Back to College • Media “Soundcheck • Personalized “dorm” • Recommend to others • No discussions • Results » Lack of community involvement » 800 members in two weeks 29 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 30: Target’s Rounders Program • "Your Mission: Try not to let on in the Facebook group that you are a Rounder," the newsletter read. • "We love your enthusiasm for the Rounders, and I know it can be hard not to want to sing it from the mountaintops [and in the shower, and on the bus]. However, we want to get other members of the Facebook group excited about Target, too! And we don't want the Rounders program to steal the show from the real star here: Target and Target's rockin' Facebook group. So keep it like a secret!" 30 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 31: Case Study: Apple Students • Embracing existing community » Free product sample » eCommerce » Cross Promotion • Results » 420,000 users » 12,000 topics 31 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 34: Ads displayed to friends of brand fans “Fan-Sumers” 1. Users can “poke” each other with branded viral messages -- combine social actions such as a purchase of a product or review of a restaurant – with an advertiser’s message. 2. Brands can buy paid ads. (Frequency capped – users will see no more than two per day). Users ‘dial’ the frequency of the ads. 34 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 35: Beacon: Third Party Partners can Reach Facebook Network • Opportunities » Greater Trust (if done correctly) • Challenges » Not Opt-In » Many Privacy concerns » Resistance to peer based recommendations » Brands need to ‘converse’ to get fans 35 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 36: Companies using Beacon Blockbuster Overstock.com Chase (RED) joinred.com The Coca-Cola Company Redlight (stay away from adult sites any one of Verizon them can be this redlight company and be telling Epicurious.com your friends about your sex fetishes. Yuck!) Flip.com SeamlessWeb Crest Whitestrips (whitestrips.com) Owned by Sony Online Entertainment LLC (station.com) Proctor and Gamble Sony Pictures Dove Cream Oils (Dove.com) Unilever Company STA Travel (statravel.com) Herbal Essences (herbalessences.com) Clairol The Knot Division owed by Proctor and Gamble TripAdvisor NYTIMES.COM Travel Ticker Saturn TypePad AllPosters.com viagogo Bluefly.com Vox CBSSports.com Yelp Dotspotter WeddingChannel.com ExpoTV Zappos.com Gamefly ebay Hotwire bluefly.com Joost Travelocity Kiva echomusic Kongregate pronto.com LiveJournal citysearch Live Nation Iwon Mercantila Busted Tees National Basketball Association College Humor (same company as busted tees) Fandango Red indicates hesitation after BeaconGate 36 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 38: Widgets Proliferate on Facebook • Over 78 million widgets live on Facebook • Over 42 million monthly unique User visitors Direct Friends • Growing 900K new Indirect Friends users a month • Over 700K widgets Interested Parties embedded daily 38 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 39: Opportunities for Widgets: • Span multiple networks • Even Smaller developers can monetize » Use existing Ad Networks • Advertisers » Skin, Co-Brand 39 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 42: Challenges 1. Facebook Data sucked into “Black Hole” » Lack of Web Analytics for Marketers » User Data 2. Facebook releases features –without aligning with customers » Newsfeed » Beacon 3. Workplace productivity concerns • Some companies will block 4. Privacy Concerns with Beacon 42 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 45: The four step approach to the groundswell P People Assess your customers’ Social Technographics profile O Objectives Decide what you want to accomplish S Strategy Plan for how relationships with customers will change T Technology Decide which social technologies to use 45 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 46: Demographics and Technographics • Is Facebook my audience? • How do they use technologies? • What are they talking about? • Who are they? • What do they want? 46 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 47: Objective: What are you trying to accomplish? Goal Contribution Examples •Earnst and Young Careers Listening Direct Customer Insight (Sponsored Group) New Product Ideas •Profile Research Beta Testing •Sponsored Groups (Jeep, Speaking Create an emotional Attachment Apple) •Advertisements Advertising based on network •Victoria’s PINK Energizing Excite your biggest fans •Applications Word of mouth •Customer created groups Supporting Peer –to- peer support •Sponsored Groups Embracing Members become contributors 47 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 48: Strategy and Tools 1. Analysis: Build or Join 2. Experimentation leads to Understanding 3. Gain Market Intelligence 4. Advertise Efficiently 5. Embrace and Lead Communities 6. Deploy Campaign » Widget » Sponsored Groups/Pages » Integrate 48 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 49: Best Practices • Listen before Speaking • Members are in control • Allow for discussions • Segment • Media as a “lead in” • Trouble Kick starting? Be a resource, and reward • Integrate with Marketing Initiatives 49 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 50: Phases for Deployment Maturity Strategy Strategies should compound Understand Aware of ‘distributed’ brand, novice Facebook, experiment monitoring and with existing tools, observing communities deploy Advertising of practice intermediate Already has deployed other Join related groups, social media strategies, build and deploy increasing budget and group or Facebook page resources advanced Deploy applications, Uses social media tools for integrate experience most product launches, with other web crises, measures and vehicles, segment has resources 50 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 51: Cost considerations…Facebook • Costs: (Time/Capital) » Research $0 » Development, Design = $0 - varied » Advertisements = cheap to large » Sponsored Groups $100k/month =May be opportunity gain 51 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 53: Don’t limit to Facebook • Brands should not limit strategy to Facebook Alone • Prepare for The Distributed Web • Understand OpenSocial • Understand the Aggregation of Social Graph • Tools come and go, what sustains is a strategy 53 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 55: Facebook: • Many tools, many opportunities • Privacy and Data concerns • Develop a Strategy » People » Objectives » Strategy » Tools • Learn to think bigger 55 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 56: Theme Facebook, a ready-made Marketing platform, offers a vast toolset (with challenges) but brands must first develop a strategy 56 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 57: Thank you Jeremiah Owyang Senior Analyst Social Computing Forrester Research web-strategist.com/blog __________________ Web Strategy Facebook Group 57 contents © 2007 Entire Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slideshare.net (beta)