The Facebook Marketing Book by Dan Zarrella and Alison Zarrella takes a look at how Facebook has changed over the years since its development back in 2004 and follows its evolution into one of the most (if not the most) powerful marketing tool available to businesses and individuals alike.

Chapter by Chapter Breakdown

The book is broken down into 12 different chapters:

1. Introduction to Social Networking
2. Facebook Profile Basics
3. Facebook Page Basics
4. Facebook Group Basics
5. Facebook Events
6. Facebook Application Basics
7. Customizing Your Facebook Page
8. Developing a Facebook Content Strategy
9. Cross-Promoting Content on Facebook
10. Facebook Page Management
11. Advertising on Facebook
12. Analytics and ROI

Zarrella and Zarrella are certainly more than capable of being trusted as credible resources for writing a book that deals with Facebook as they both have extensive experience in the social media and writing market. Of special interest to online marketing experts will be Chapters 7 and 8, which detail how to customize a Facebook fan page in order to appeal to a target audience.

Long has it been assumed that Facebook is “something for the kids” to engage in. In fact, Facebook now spans a much wider audience than most traditional media can even hope to reach. Similar to Twitter, Zarrella and Zarrella point out that Facebook goes well beyond simply knowing how to set up an attractive profile page. Rather, the key to finding success with this particular social network is INTERACTION.

Whether you are creating “groups” for your fan page, users can take advantage of all of the free features that Facebook provides. For instance, longer Facebook icons provide more room for branding right on your Facebook fan page! And because the page icon is the first thing that people will see, you will want to make sure that you represent your brand as well as you can. Zarrella and Zarrella recommend a “perfect” icon size as being around 200 pixels square or a longer icon that is 600 pixels high by 200 pixels wide (pp. 135).

A Word About Facebook Tabs

Zarrella and Zarrella also strongly recommend taking advantage of Facebok Tabs. In order to do this, you may need to spend a little time familiarizing yourself with FBML (Facebook Markup Language) OR, you may want to invest some money into hiring a professional designer to develop some custom Facebook tabs and/or Facebook applications. The bottom line here is all about improving the functionality, look and feel for your potential Fans.

In addition to all of the aforementioned, making sure that you have FRESH CONTENT every day is important. It lets fans know that you’re alive and that you are an active Facebook user who is open to comments, suggestions and the like. Offering EXCLUSIVE stuff to those who are your Facebook fans is a great way to make fans feel special while improving upon your branding.

In future posts, we’ll come back to Zarrella and Zarrella regarding Facebook; but for now, definitely make sure you grab a copy of their new book, The Facebook Marketing Book. It offers some really valuable insight into what’s currently going on in the world of social media and social networking, and for just under $14, you can’t find a better deal.

Social Networks: The Power of the Collective

According to Evans, understanding how network organization affects the flow of information is central to your successfully making the case for social media within your organization.  That being said, Evans lists three laws which govern the use and value of social networks as well as the Social Web.  They are as follows:

1. Sarnoff’s Law- Named after the founder of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), David Sarnoff, this law holds that the value of the network increases in direct proportion to the number of listeners.  So, for example, in a typical broadcast, a single voice is sent out to millions of listeners.  Therefore, a network with 100 people is 10 times as valuable.
2. Metcalfe’s Law- Named for Robert Metcalfe, one of the co-inventors of Ethernet and founder of the networking firm 3Com, this law states that the network value grows as the square of the number of users.  For example, people can talk in both directions and with more than one conversation occurring simultaneously.
3. Reed’s Law- Named for David P. Reed, this law is also known as the “Law of the Pack” and holds that the value of the network grows more powerfully than either Sarnoff or Metcalfe would suggest with the formation of groups and the interconnections between them. This law is most applicable to how we view social networks today.

Social Media Begins Here

Social media is about ordinary people trying to reach out to one another via groups and communities that are formed on the Web.   This is why social networking is so effective.  People are constantly sharing information with one another- more often than traditional forms of media (i.e. television and radio, etc.).  Marketers are also beginning to recognize the value of social networking because as Evans stated:

These highly interconnected social networks are equally perceived as effective in vetting that information, and it is the combined impact that makes social networks along with user-generated content and social meedia so powerful from a consumer’s perspective.  They are using these networks to evaluate everything you say.

Evans Wraps it Up With the Following

• Social media derives its value simultaneously from the collective and the individual, not the mass.  This is a reversal of traditional marketing and creative models where a single message is crafted and pushed out to a mass audience.
• Network Value-that is, how efficiently it supports sharing and collaboration-is determined by the way in which members are connected.  Networks that follow Reed’s Law- where members are free to form groups and connections between themselves and these groups- are the types of networks of most interest to social media marketers.
• The touchpoint map and social feedback cycle are central to the successful application of social media.
• RSS allows content to be scheduled for delivery.  This is much better than having to go and check on it.  RSS powers much of the Social Web.
• Social networks are part of, but not the same as, social media and the Social Web.

Word-of-mouth, from a consumer, is generally considered trustworthy.  But what about when the source is a marketer?  How can you use word-of-mouth in your own campaigns? There is a basic, healthy human skepticism present whenever someone is making the case for why you need what he or she is selling. -Dave Evans

The other night, I was in bed watching a television program.  As soon as the program broke to commercials, I got up and went to get a snack before returning.  When I saw that the program still hadn’t returned, I busied myself with other things.   What I was doing was what Evans refers to as filtering.  Filtering, or separating what we need to know from what we don’t care to know- is something that is ingrained in us as humans.  So, are the commercials a waste of marketing dollars? No.  Chances are that there is someone out there who LOVES to sit through commercials.  However, if you think about it, the number of people who cannot stand to be interrupted with ads is numerous and growing each day.  After all, that’s why the DVR was invented, right?  You cannot discuss marketing, advertising or commercials without mentioning the “A” word: Avoidance.  As human beings and consumers in a free market, we are growing less tolerant of what we deem to be an encroachment upon our personal lives at the hands of marketers, ad agencies and general salespeople.

Building Trust & Getting the “Word” Out

Remember that saying, “honesty is the best policy”?  Well, it still holds true today- the thing is that many “marketing experts” fail to realize this.  They think that if they tell consumers what they’re up to that the consumer won’t want to consume anything that they have to offer. Tsk Tsk! On the contrary, transparency is of the utmost importance because it helps you to build a valuable relationship with other people.  And as we all know, you can’t build a solid relationship with anyone if you don’t trust them.

In marketing, one of the most powerful things you can do is establish trust with the consumer by disclosing exactly what you’re about.  As Evans stated:

If I am willing to disclose my own self-interest, then there is good reason to consider ‘truthful’ the balance of what I might say.

Being Transparent

According to Evans, part of the main reason that there has been a backlash against traditional advertising (giving way to the rise of the Social Web) is because people are sick of the intrustions, falsehoods and the general lack of respect for the individual.  The Social Web takes media and advertising in a whole new direction because the consumers control the conversations.  For example, if you buy a vacuum cleaner from a certain store and then it breaks down, there’s a good chance that you’re going to head straight for the Internet to write a review about it.  Similarly, when consumers are preparing to buy products, more of them are reading each others online reviews before making a decision.

As a marketer, being transparent is incredibly important.  You can’t stop consumers from talking about you or your product (whether good or bad), so why not embrace it and make the most out of the situation? Evans suggests that it’s when the advertising and marketing is low-key or quiet that the “trust” factor is the highest.  For example, according to Evans, a company might say:

Here, I made this.  It’s for sale.  Buy it and try it out.  If you like it, great.  If not, you can give it back and I will refund 100 percent of your money.

Some examples of companies who have done quite well with these types of word-of-mouth campaigns include the likes of: Starbucks, Red Bull, Hotmail and Amazon.

According to Evans:

• Marketers are facing a dilemma: Giving up control in order to gain a presence in the conversations that matter.
• It is the interruption that is driving the backlash that advertisers are feeling.
• The importance of disclosure as a means to establish trust cannot be overstated.
• Trust is essential to any form of conversation on the Social Web.
• Robust metrics and measurement are available that can be used to track and prove the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of social campaigns