Chapter 1

Marketing in the Age of Facebook

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding why Facebook is so popular

Getting acquainted with the marketing potential of Facebook

Determining whether your business needs a Facebook Page now

Facebook is a social media juggernaut! As of the publication date of this book, Facebook has more than 2 billion people worldwide. In fact, if it were a country, it would be the most populated country in the world, ahead of India and China!

In addition to being the largest social network on the planet, it's the most active. In fact, as of December 2017, 1.4 billion people use Facebook every day! Also, according to a report by eMarketer in 2017, more than half of the population of the U.S. used Facebook in 2016.

Think about this: Most smartphones and tablets are preloaded with a Facebook app or at least have features that allow for Facebook sharing.

Facebook grew at a staggering rate because it fit the needs of both consumers and businesses. However, early in 2018, Facebook changed its algorithm (an algorithm determines the order in which you see items in your Timeline) in response to a major controversy involving the use of automated bots that didn't represent content from actual users.

All Facebook users have a Facebook profile, which includes a main image, or avatar; a Timeline listing their latest activities and comments from friends; and a sidebar that includes links for photos, personal information, and other apps.

Facebook's goal in changing the algorithm was to encourage more social interaction among friends and family. Consumers use Facebook to connect with friends and share their lives in the form of updates and activity.

Businesses use Facebook Pages to engage customers and prospects; they also run highly targeted ad campaigns for the Facebook community. However, this algorithm change impacts how businesses need to market their products and services. (See details for dealing with these changes in Chapter 3.)

Businesses need to adjust their strategies and tactics to engage users by creating more value. Posting quality content is more important than producing a steady stream of articles and photos. If used correctly, Facebook is still an attractive platform for virtually all industries to achieve concrete business goals such as:

• Increasing brand awareness: Companies of all sizes are reaching Facebook's massive community with Facebook Social Plugins (for websites), Facebook Ads, and Facebook Pages.
• Launching products: Brands are using Facebook to announce new products with Facebook Ad campaigns and custom apps as part of their overall product launch strategy.
• Providing customer service: Brands also realize that consumers expect to be able to get their issues resolved by contacting the company via its Facebook Page by using Facebook Messenger.
• Selling products and services: Businesses like DODO case (https://www.facebook.com/DODOcase) and Calm the Ham (https://www.facebook.com/CalmTheHam/) sell their products on Facebook through the use of e-commerce applications that can be added to a Facebook Page.

This book shows you how you can achieve some of these business goals.

In this chapter, we give you an overview of why Facebook has grown so big and how marketers are taking advantage of its potential. We also explain why you need to create a Facebook Page for your business.

What Is Facebook, and Why Is It So Popular?

The social networking site Facebook was launched in 2004 by a kid at Harvard University named Mark Zuckerberg. It started with the name Thefacebook (shown in Figure 1-1) and was available only to Harvard students or anyone else who had a harvard.edu email address. The social network spread quickly throughout Harvard because it was exclusive.

FIGURE 1-1: Screen shot of Thefacebook.com as it appeared in 2004.

Although it was launched as a network for Harvard students, Facebook was eventually made available to students at other universities and finally to anyone with access to a computer. Now, just a few years later, it has become the largest social networking site in history. As of the publication date of this book, Facebook has more than 2 billion users worldwide.

But it's not just the biggest social networking site in history; it's also the most active. According to Facebook (http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info), the company has

• 1.4 billion daily active users on average for December 2017

• 2.13 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2017

  According to Zephoria Digital Marketing (https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/)

• 1.15 billion mobile daily active users for December 2016
• 1.74 billion mobile monthly active users as of December 2016

But now we want to talk about you. If you're like most people, your mom is on Facebook. Most of your friends are on Facebook. Maybe you reconnected with a long-lost high school friend by using Facebook. Maybe you even met your spouse there.

You may be wondering why Facebook - and not formerly popular Myspace or FriendFeed - got to where Facebook is today. Although an entire book can be written on this topic, it's worth exploring at least briefly here.

Here are a few reasons why Facebook has blown past all other social networks:

• Facebook has used existing social connections to promote the platform. From Day One, the sign-on process has included inviting anyone you've emailed! Its assumption is that if you've exchanged an email with someone, there's a good chance that you have some kind of relationship with that person and may be inclined to invite him or her to join you on Facebook.
• Facebook is heavily covered by mainstream media. Whether it's a newspaper article about a teacher getting fired for making thoughtless comments about a student or a TV interview with two siblings who were separated at birth but reunited on Facebook, not a day goes by without some kind of mention of Facebook in the news.
• Facebook keeps us connected. Young people famously use Facebook to stay connected, but they're not alone. One of the fastest-growing segments on Facebook continues to be people over 55. Many of them use Facebook to keep up with their children and sometimes grandchildren.

FACEBOOK FACILITATES CONNECTION

Karen Graham and Tim Garman are a brother and sister who were reunited after 40 years because of Facebook. Separated at birth and adopted by two separate families, they were reunited only when their younger sister, Danielle, began searching for them on Facebook.

After three months and more than a few dead ends, Danielle found the Facebook profile of Karen Graham's daughter. She sent her the message "I think your mom is my mom's daughter," which eventually led to the reunion.

Today, Karen and Tim are very close, attending family gatherings around holidays and reunions. The two had a desire to meet each other, but they lacked the means to find each other until Facebook provided the opportunity for connection.

Similarly, in 2011, I (John) was able to meet an old friend I hadn't seen since high school. In middle school and high school, I was a very unpopular, shy nerd who was bullied by the "cool kids." Needless to say, I wasn't very excited to get friend requests from many of these classmates.

But with Clark, I said, "Now that's someone that I'd be very interested in reuniting with!" I remembered Clark as being extremely smart and creative. (The figure shows Clark [left] with me in Chicago.) We initially connected through a Facebook Group someone created for our high school, and then we arranged to connect in Chicago when I was there on business.

Understanding the Marketing Potential of Facebook

In the 1950s, this gadget called television exploded throughout American culture. At first, there were black-and-white TVs, and then, toward the end of the decade, there were color TVs in every middle-class living room. As more consumers started watching TV instead of listening to the radio, marketers had to adopt their strategies to the new medium. Successful ad executives and writers took the time to understand how TV fit within American culture. They researched how and why TV became a focal point for families at the end of each day (remember TV dinners?). They researched the ways men watched TV differently from women and which television shows kids preferred on Saturday morning.

Only after this research were they able to create successful TV advertisements. They learned to condense their messages to 30 seconds. They created ads with jingles that imitated popular TV themes and effectively placed their products within popular shows.

In the same way, today's successful brands must understand how to best use Facebook to market their brands.

If you're reading this book, there's a good chance that you've heard about how brands like Harley-Davidson and Nutella, as well as thousands of small businesses and nonprofits, are using Facebook to market their products and services.

Through a variety of strategies and...