Facebook for marketing, anyone?

[jpmcgrew]

I've been trying to think of ways to utilize Facebook for online marketing, and for drawing traffic to our website, but I'm coming up dry! My company is marketing a note taking software, so it seems obvious that we should be pitching to college students, but the facebook crowd seems to be a difficult one to penetrate. Anyone have any suggestions on ways to market an idea on that site?

Thanks everyone!

[dave marshall]

Hi,

it seems very broad customer based unlike alot of the web that is very specific. Personally I would focus on more targeted traffic,

dave

[jamestl2]

Facebook as a marketing tool won't last very long. It was created to network with friends from schools and and colleagues. It wasn't created for businesses to find customers, and it's not there for you spam them with your site.

Please read this to know why it's overvalued in itself:
Fadbook: Why Facebook is Overvalued

[dave marshall]

I have had a few, i mean a few, vistors through from face book tec but I have to agree, and suggest that the best way to market your product is to find the customers and target them with seo.

dave

[tobyhede]

I am *all* about Facebook.

It depends on exactly what you are doing and what market you're targeting, but I've been building applications for some pretty big companies here in Australia with some very good results.

But the bottom line is that Facebook is increasingly about businesses finding customers. There is a tom of support for business use.

Pretty much my entire social circle and business network is inside Facebook now, and it has become the hub for a lot of "real-world" event planning => I think the event stuff is the real killer.

[jpmcgrew]

Originally Posted by tobyhede

I am *all* about Facebook.

It depends on exactly what you are doing and what market you're targeting, but I've been building applications for some pretty big companies here in Australia with some very good results.

Pretty much my entire social circle and business network is inside Facebook now, and it has become the hub for a lot of "real-world" event planning => I think the event stuff is the real killer.

The concept of developing an actual application is not a bad idea. It seems like it would draw a lot of traffic if you're able to come up with something related to what it is you're doing, and if people really like what you're doing.

Thanks for the tips, they're appreciated!

Jake

[Orionjoel]

I think from the point of view of developing a business based on an application within the Facebook site,especially one that gets a popular following and integrates advertising well as most of the applications i have seen do to varying degrees, then there is definetly potential for a good business there.

However, facebook as a driver for customers to your website i think offers a very minimal potential for success. While from what i have found digging round there website there is absolutely some focus on making facebook part of your business, it is far from going to be a successful part of your marketing effort. Maybe at a stretch if you get your advertisement rotating on the left hand side just below the menu (the one that seems to be dominated by dating website advertisements), then with the right product you may get some results, however i would assume that it would not be a cheap option.

[prasunsen]

In my opinion marketing through social networks is a lost cause. People are not connecting to you to be marketed at. The social networks are unorganized.

[tobyhede]

Facebook is TOO organised - that's the criticism lots of people have about it.
It's arguable that people don't use the web in general to be marketed at but just look at the success of adwords.

Marketing on Facebook is "true" marketing. You can buy ads, sure, but that's not marketing. The real point is to start creating a community around your product and or service. So Groups, Fan Pages, Apps, tied together with Ads (which are quite cheap - similar system to Google ads).

If your demographic is using Facebook or MySpace, it can definitely be worth the investment. And the fastest growing demographic on FB is 35+, so you may be surprised.

There are no silver bullets for this stuff - the beauty of the web is that many of these services you can try and experiment with for free, and then if you are getting results, start investing more into them.

[JimC]

I would look in to free magazine ads or even talking to some local schools or colleges. Also consider targeting research groups, note taking is big in the field of science.

I bet you could release group licenses and sell them to schools or libraries. Some schools might distribute them to the class to encourage note taking.

Anyway, the program looks really cool, I might get a copy for myself.

[jpmcgrew]

Cool, thanks for the tips everyone.

JimC,

we have been working on a lot of the things you have mentioned. Some of it is proving to be tougher than we thought, but we have seen some success with it. Most of our successes have come from doing things SEO related, but I like your ideas!

[Ali from The Office Diet]

If you are determined to use Facebook, I'd agree with what tobyhede said: the way forward is through creating a community buzz around your product. I log into Facebook pretty much every day (my group of friends got very keen on it at Uni, so most people I know use it!) ... but I've probably clicked on about two adverts in my whole time using it.

I have, however, joined a lot of groups (some serious, some silly, some "fan" ones). So I'd suggest creating a fan page and/or group for the product, or even a Facebook application that would give a "taster" of the note-taking software. (I'm no fan of applications myself, but lots of people are.)

You might find some of Seth Godin's writings useful, particularly "Unleashing the Idea Virus" (Unleashing The IdeaVirus) and "Flipping the Funnel" (Seth's Blog: Flipping the Funnel--new ebook)

Good luck!

Ali

[jpmcgrew]

The applications idea has come up a few times now, and it's made me seriously consider this. I'm now trying to come with ways that we could develop a fun application that is somehow related to the program that we've created and are marketing.

Good ideas, thank you all again!

[Brutha]

If you make notes and are in college, you usually want to share information with your friends.
Going through facebook might be a good way to destribute those notes. And it will make your product more viral because users who have notescribe and facebook tell their friends through facebook that they use your program.

Having an easy way to destribute some of your notes (and being able to decide with you want to share) automatically to the right people (as a student you might not want your professor or teacher to have access to them would certainly be valuable.

Facebook could be a bride to share that information.

As a student who studies a field with a lot of math (bioinformatics) your product would probably not work well for me because I need TeX formulas in my notes.

That the moment I write everything in our math class into my computer in LaTeX and share the PDF of it via divshare with my friends.

Especially if your program would be good for share information it would get an automatic network effect.
It would also give me a real reason to use a special notetaking program instead of using LaTeX or word.

[jpmcgrew]

Great points, Brutha.

We do have a quick import/export function which would probably sync up well with a facebook type of application where they could exchange their notes through that.

Thanks for the pointers!

[Brutha]

We do have a quick import/export function

It shouldn't be quick, but automatically. Something that you can set up at the beginning of the semester and than it does it's work automatically without you having to manage it. Managing that stuff is a job that software can principly do, but that word doesn't do.

Lets say I and three of my friends use a program for Note Taking.
We each put a specific Tag at our notes for course Math 101.
If would be great if I could when I review our notes for the class at monday simply see what the other two students wrote down about the lecture and see it all beneath each other.
If application could do that with us just setting at the beginning of the semester the option for that tag, it would be great.
Maybe the creation of that tag would create a message on the facebook mini-feed that tell my friends that they can opt in to that tag.
And maybe people can read the things that you add under that tag via the facebook app.

There is also a good chance that an additional forth friend might also want to have that integrated look at the notes and he buys the software for that reason.
And we get social recognition for sharing our notes with him.

That would be a network effect for your software.

As a sidenote having a software that has to connect on a regular basis to a your server also helps you with software piracy because you can check the registration numbers of the software.

[sarav]

I know what you are talking about. I am experimenting with Twitter.com for the same thing. I recently came across a software that is supposed help you write the best ads for forums, Adword ads, etc. It's called Glyphius. Does anyone have any experience with this software? I read that it scores your ad copy. Then you can ad a "!" etc. and see if rates it higher. Let me know if you've heard anything good about it. It sounds like it could help save some money and time.

[jpmcgrew]

I have never tried Glyphius, but it sounds like it could be a useful program.

[Gene]

I am going to down load your software and play with it. I am often asked for recommendations for software. I am unable to give any quality information about marketing on Facebook though.

[jpmcgrew]

Originally Posted by Gene

I am going to down load your software and play with it. I am often asked for recommendations for software. I am unable to give any quality information about marketing on Facebook though.

Hi Gene,

We would definitely appreciate you trying our software, please let us know what you think of it after you have played with it for awhile. Thanks!