Time 29:00

The mediocre public launch of Facebook is puzzling enough to me to spend some time reflecting on its implications for the economy in general and marketers specifically in this Marketing Edge podcast recorded on Blog Talk Radio. In the weeks leading up the Facebook’s opening day of trading, General Motors publicly said they were pulling their ads from Facebook (albeit it they reinforced their free participation on the platform) Ford, an automotive company whose culture is a bit more social than GM, see previous Marketing Edge podcast one of social’s early milestone automotive initiatives the Ford Fiesta launch, rallied to Facebook’s side stinging GM for poor execution

I have found Facebook ads serve several purposes, among them;

• market research
• message testing
• interest segmentation instead of demographic
• increasing audience size and engagement

These purposes extend beyond traditional metrics and bottom line results. My take is social can’t be viewed in the same context as advertising on other media. As companies and marketers transition to the ways consumers interaction with technology, each other, and products, new habits will emerge. I don’t mean just habits of consumers, but habits of how companies and their cultures will accommodate the impact of social interaction to society. Nonetheless for now, reasonable professionals will disagree and this seems to be a classic case of that. It’s a scenario that should make next semester’s advertising curriculum at a university near you.

Last night, Chris Treadaway, co-author of Facebook Marketing an Hour a Day joined the conversation about Facebook’s future. The rocky start to Facebook’s stock will make anyone, advertiser and investor take notice losing 18% in its first three days of trading from its IPO price.

Treadaway is no Facebook zealot, but a long-time veteran of technology start ups. While he acknowledges social is in turbulent times, he believes data will settle most of the commotion. Data inside Facebook is the foundation of Treadaway’s new technology venture Polygraph Media. It is an online reporting tool for Facebook interactions that goes beyond Facebook standard reporting. They have several reports available on popular brand pages to give you an idea of the depth of data turned into information. I created a dashboard for reports on the Venetian Hotel in Vegas Facebook Page and my favorite chef Bobby Flay’s Facebook Page

My contention over the years is this, we get caught up in macro numbers like Facebook has 800 million users and select case studies like grabbing for straws to support our ideas. The irony is marketers talk in terms of how technology and social has led to 1-to-1 or special segment targeting, but their measurement of success is stuck in mass market paradigms. Facebook is still a sandbox for advertisers so keep playing kids. If you believe your product, content, and audience are unique, then yours is the only case study and data you need to determine whether Facebook works.

UPDATE:

Right after I post this, I read about more legal battles as a result of the Facebook IPO and who knew what when. It is one thing to have a debate over advertising platforms and execution, undermining the trust of investors and advertisers is another. My two cents is these are major distractions from the question of whether Facebook users can be reached, engaged, and motivated.