Here’s some statistics about effectiveness of Facebook marketing tactics:

Looking at the numbers, we see that creating Facebook applications was the most effective tactic. Surveying fans had pretty good results too. Advertising on Facebook is the worst performer.

Usually, a good Facebook application will engage users in a fun or meaningful way. Facebook applications have the potential of engaging for long and can exploit viral channels available in Facebook. I also thought it was the most effective approach in Facebook in the long term since brands can use an application to grow a user base with time. Then, the brand has a base of operation to pitch their fan page, contests or other timely promotions. I’m glad to see that numbers are confirming what I believe.

Here are the statistics for Twitter:

For Twitter we see that try to sell was giving the worst results. The best performing tactics were those involving answering tweets about PR problems or responding to other negative tweets about the brands.

I also like the fact that in-person events are performing well with Twitter. Twitter is always proving to me that it is an amazing bridge between online social interactions and real world interactions. What’s more engaging that meeting persons face to face? Fun stuff!

It’s common sense for people in social media but it proves that really engaging with users or customers is the most effective social media marketing approach.

How They Plan to Spend their Money?

I read on eMarketing that 60% of the social marketing dollars next year will go toward staff salaries for activities such as blogging, content development and monitoring of social channels. Another two-fifths will be spent on outside help from agencies, consultancies and service providers.

We believe that content must be produced in-house so hiring your staff  is important. But brands need external help from social media experts to build an effective social media presence, to review and implement the best practices and to help them stay ahead of the curve. The outside help budget would be bigger for brands who want to get custom applications for Facebook, the iPhone or the Blackberry. Rules often changes; so you must account for that in your budget and deadlines. For example, running a contest on Facebook is subject to an approval process since November 2009.

Most Popular Social Media Objectives

With the splurge on email marketing to their in-house list that was evident this holiday, I am surprised that we do not see the in-house list or building a community of fans as a strategic marketing objective.

Industries that will Increase the Most their Social Media Marketing Budget

As you can see, retailer and e-commerce brands will increase the most their social media marketing budget followed by the publishing/media industry. I am surprised that the travel/leisure industry is not on the top 3.

+ via eMarketer

Kim Vallee just published a post on What to Consider Before Creating a Facebook Business Page. I suggest you read it to follow the right process in creating a Facebook page for your business.

The Rules of Engagement

As Kim mentions, I often receive Facebook friend requests from brands and businesses. Sorry, but for me and many others, friends are real persons. For businesses, Facebook created pages for which people can become fans. It is important to mention that personal accounts on Facebook are subject to Facebook’s terms of use where it is stated:

• 4.1 You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.
• 4.2 You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser).

Facebook Pages are also governed by interesting terms:

• 12.1 Pages are special profiles that may only be used to promote a business or other commercial, political, or charitable organization or endeavor (including non-profit organizations, political campaigns, bands, and celebrities).
• 12.2 You may only administer a Facebook Page if you are an authorized representative of the subject of the Page.

So clearly, Facebook Pages are meant for businesses. Using personal profiles for commercial purposes could easily get you banned. Additionally, personal accounts are clearly meant for persons.

Protecting Brand Ownership

I know many agencies and friends that help small businesses and larger companies manage their Facebook presence. If you do so, it is important that you protect the ownership of the Facebook Page for the client.

As Kim mentioned, to create a Facebook Page, you need a personal account. You can add administrators to a page, but the Page creator will always keep ownership of the Page. It is not well known that administrators cannot remove the page creator from the list of administrators. It’s an easy mistake to create a Facebook page from your own profile. Don’t do it!

If you need to create a page for a small business owner or founder, it might not be a mistake to register the Facebook Page under his/her personal account. Even then, you never know what might happen. The business might sooner or later be transferred to someone else in the family or be bought in the future. The new owners will lose control of the Facebook Page.

For larger businesses, it’s evident that it’s a problem. The CEO/president is probably not there forever and employees come and go. So, under which personal account should the Page be created to ensure future ownership of the Facebook Page?

I asked my friend Clara Shih who wrote the excellent book: “The Facebook Era” about this Catch-22 problem. She answered:

“Good question. We recommend companies set up a new personal Facebook account for Admin User, and then keep this login/password for whoever at the company is managing the Page(s). Does that make sense?”

I replied to her that it might put us in a grey zone as to Facebook’s terms of use. Her answer:

“Yes, but it is the only way we have figured out to get around this!”

So, here you have it from an expert on the subject!

Based on that, we recommend that you create a personal profile for the company. Also create a specific email from the company domain to log into the account and to ensure future ownership. As a disclaimer, we must note that it probably goes against Facebook terms of use. You are warned: do not knock at our doors if a company profile gets banned! However, since there are no other good workarounds yet and that Facebook hasn’t solved the problem, I suppose it can be considered an acceptable use.

To avoid potential problems, Kim had great suggestions: make sure the profile is totally private and hidden on Facebook through privacy settings. Manage your Facebook Page by adding appropriate administrators (employees for the business or the agency). Since you won’t ever really be using this personal account (give the email and password to appropriate company officers) risks are low it would be banned.

Basic questions that any brand would ask before they start are:

• How do I find the influencers on my market?
• Which social networks my customer base are using and at which frequency?
• How do you track all mentions of your brand?
• How many resources it will take and who should do the job?
• How do I track the effectiveness of my tweets?

You will find on Mashable, a list of Tweeter Tools for the Enterprise that can help you answer these questions. Start with the integrated Twitter search to track the mentions of your brand or a few keywords. You can saved the search requests on your Twitter account. Doing that saves you time.

I would add to Goggle what you are looking for as they are many small niche sites that gathered topic-related tweets or Tweeple. They give you a head start on who to follow.

The A/B testing tips using hashtags is a wonderful idea that is so simple to implement. Like Sudha Jamthe mentioned on Mashable, you can use it to test the effectiveness of your message, test what time and day brings you the best results or analyze the effectiveness on different audience segments.

MORE:
+ Corporate Twitter Toolbox: Twitter Tools for the Enterprise by Sudha Jamthe on Mashable

This story is a quick lesson on building an online community. Repeat after me: it takes time and energy. You cannot expect to create an engaged community overnight. Every successful blogger will tell you, you built it one reader at a time. But big corporations often do not have that patience.

Many corporations put lots of money and resources in launching an initial campaign, get good results only to see their community fades away. It is common in the corporate structure to publish in one shot all the content they have. Big corporations act slower then the pace of the social media. Therefore, they are often unable to publish new content fast enough to encourage their readers/fans to come back. This is why I adviuce any new blogger to keep a few posts unpublished when they are starting out. But there is more to that.

On Social Media Today, Rachel Happe compared building an online community to making a risotto. When you are making a risotto, you add a ladle of water at a time, let the rice absorbs the water and then add more liquid. Our president, Jerome Paradis is an expert at making risotto. He cooks the best risotto I ever had. Jerome will tell you that you need to massage the rice as it absorbs the water. It is the same for building a community. You need to nurture it for it grows into something dynamic and engaging.

MORE:
+ Growing a Community on Social Media Today
+ Asparagus, Mint and Lemon Risotto recipe

I read on Mashable yesterday their 10 Things You Must Do to Earn Your Audience’s Trust. I often made similar recommendations to people. I feel that some points needs clarification or adjustments. Here are my insights on some points.

Tell us who you are

I would add that you should say what topics you will discuss, what is your angle. If you run a blog, do not make it only about your brand. For example, Paradivision creates social media applications but our blog covers social media news and trends for business.

Don’t setup a profile on every network

I do not recommend to write the exact same message on all the network. I stay away from tools to publish the same updates on many networks; doing that only creates noise. If you wish to engage in a conversation with your customers, you must be willing to make the time.

I often spread the same stories on Twitter and Facebook. But I will use different sentences to do it. On Twitter, my followers may have never met me. There are more chances that I have at least met you once if we are Facebook friends. For that reason, I use different words to talk to each audience. In Facebook, I use the link and comment features to publish richer content.

Know that news spread more and die faster on Twitter. I find LinkedIn to be a passive social network. But some people like it. Try it to see if it is for you.

Write for the Word

Writing short posts is crucial. Aim for posts between 200 and 400 words. People do not have the time to read longer stories. If you wish to cover several angles, split the story in a series of posts. Each post must stand on its own.

Document Everything

I wish to point out that text is more SEO friendly than video. So even if you post a video, you need to include some text in your post. Use videos to complement what you are saying, to bring a topic or to document an event. It works great for quick interviews. Keep your videos under 2 minutes but aim for 1:30 minutes. It needs to be short for people to watch your video.

Web 2.0 is about sharing and engaging. Upload your videos on You Tube or Vimeo. You want to give bloggers a chance to spread the words and embedded your video into their story.

+ Photo by Jerome Paradis showing an improvised session at PodCamp Boston 4, that happened last weekend

• ComScore Media Metrix’s year-end report: Women’s community was the most visited and fastest growing Internet category, tied with politics. The number of unique visits to women’s community sites jumped 35% to almost 70 million from 52 million. This is quite an achievement considering the US Presidential race.
• InsideFacebook: Two days ago (in September 2008), a new survey shows that women outnumber men on Facebook in every age group.

The most current Facebook statistics look like this

What it interesting is that reality is still holding. It has been true month after month. Women are truly embracing social media. The only social networking site where there is more men than women is LinkedIn.

Anderson Analytics’ Social Network Sites A&U Profiler Survey

The first conclusion that is interesting for a marketing viewpoint or if you wish to have your own social network application is to look at how men and women use SNS. You can read from the press release on that particular SNS study the following:

While male and female SNS users engage in similar activities online, the survey found that males are more likely to share information about their hobbies, interesting articles or work-related topics. Female users in general are more likely to share photos, information about what they are currently doing or posts about their pets.

Social network sites vary in popularity based on ages. From that you can see that the older generations use mostly Facebook and Twitter. The Generation X and the WII generation are the most active on Twitter. Overall, Facebook is the most popular site, followed by My Space, Twitter and LinkedIn. Plus, Facebook members were the most loyal among regular users.

Anderson Analytics published the results of an interesting survey in mid-July 2009 about SNS habits and user profiles. The survey reached 5000 users in the United States. The average ages are not too far apart. The survey found that MySpace has the youngest user group (29 yrs old), while LinkedIn’s audience is the oldest (36 yrs old). Facebook users have on average 34 years old while the average age on Twitter is 33.

It came to no surprises that people in different age groups use social networking sites (SNS) for the different reasons. We see that survey after survey. After all, generation gap and different lifestyles play a role in how people uses SNS.

MORE:
+ New Social Media Study: Facebook Trumps Other Social Media as Most Valuable; Majority of Users Can’t Do Without Popular Site on Tom H. C. Anderson
+ How the Old, the Young and Everyone in Between Uses Social Networks on eMarketer

+ If you are not convinced of the popularity of social media, have a look at more than 20 mind-blowing social media statistics. The 250 million Facebook users have a high level of participation. More than 120 million Facebook users log on to Facebook at least once a day and more than 30 million users update their statuses at least once a day. 50% of all Twitter updates are published using mobile and Web-based tools. Twitter is my social media when I am on the go.

+ Mitch Joel of Six Pixels of Separation shared how some brands use Twitter to listen, discover problems and act on it without posting a single tweet. Twitter is a wonderful tool for customer service research. Even if the high level management is not ready at your company to actively interact in social media, it does not mean that you should do nothing. Remember that just monitoring what people say about your brand is useless if you do not act on based on the information you gathered. Read How Big Business Is On Twitter Without Being “On Twitter”.

Brands cannot afford to not be on media social anymore. Whether you like it or not, people are taking about you on the Web. It is better for the growth and long-term survival of your business that you monitor and participate in those discussions.

Where do you start?

The answer depends on your goal, how confortable/savvy you are with the tools, how much time and ressources you can allow to the task and what is your industry (B2B vs. B2C). In short, there is no one size fits all answer. Instead, let’s go over the 4 main tools for business to become an active participant in social media.

Remember to use a friendly, casual tone conversation in all your messages whether you are posting on Twitter, Facebook, writing a post on your blog or commenting another blog. People are looking for authenticity. They do not want to read formal messages that look like they were taken from a press release. Use as a reference how you speak in every day conversations at the office.

Twitter

Twitter launched yesterday its Twitter 101 guide for business. An excerpt from the guide states that

From local stores to big brands, and from brick-and-mortar to internet-based or service sector, people are finding great value in the connections they make with businesses on Twitter.

What I like about Twitter is that it is easy to setup an account. It allows brands to experiment the benefit of social media without investing time and money on an infrastructure. All you need to do is open your account – finding the right user name may be the most time consuming for some. Import your brand avatar and a branded profile background before you launch your account. Make sure to fill up the bio with the description of your Twitter account and put a link to your Web site or blog.

Tweeple (users of Twitter) prefer to talk with a brand that identifies their spoken person(s) on their bio. It is not an absolute must but it helps to humanize the conversations.

Facebook Fan Pages

If a brand wish to get a presence on Facebook, they created a page. Facebook can be used to find employees and know better your prospects. Clara Shih wrote Facebook Era, a book about tapping online social networks to build better products, reach new audiences, and sell more stuff. I encourage you to read it. While you are buying Facebook Era, get your copy of Tribes by Seth Godin.

Beware that it takes more work to have a dynamic fan page on Facebook than to engage the conversations on Twitter. This is why I often advise businesses who hired me as a social media expert to start with a Twitter presence. Once they get a grip on how to interact in social media, they can start their own blog and then have a Facebook presence.

I covered how a brand can use their Fan page on my social media blog. Therefore, I am referring you to the last 3 posts I wrote on the matter:

+ How I Use the Facebook Fan Page of My Blog
+ Properly Setting the Fan Permissions on Facebook Pages
+ The Need for Fresh Content on Your Facebook Fan Page vs. Your Blog

LinkedIn

If Facebook is for many their private life social network, LinkedIn is where they keep business relations. LinkedIn is suited if your brand is on the B2B market.

A Corporate Blog

I am a full-time blogger. Thus, it is no surprise that I strongly believe in the power of the blog. The blog is where you can really highlight your philosophy, your approach. You can operate a corporate blog to educate your customers about how to use your products, talk about what is going on in your industry, be a leader by explaining what it takes to run a successful small business. I strongly believe that a corporate blog should be written by an employee of the company.

A blog is a conversational Web site where you share your ideas, your finds and your solutions about a niche topic. You invite people to discuss what you write about. The author of a blog is the investigator of the conversations. You put your stamp on the conversation through the topic you selected and the angle that you presented. You are also the moderator of the discussions going on on your blog. I wrote several posts on On the Web with Kim Vallee about how to write good blog content.

Twitter, Facebook and the blog complement each other. Each one promotes the other two.

This is the latest social widget for Facebook Fan page. Fan Box can turn your Web visitors into fans. It is meant to be put on the blog or Web site of brands, celebrities and local businesses with a Facebook page. If it is your case, you should test the Fan Box widget to see if it brings you more new fans than your actual Become a Fan link.

Any Facebook page administrator will not have any problem installing this Facebook Connect-enabled social widget to their existing Web site or blog. You can simply display a Become a Fan button but I feel the widget gets more social when you add the profile image of your fans and/or the stream of your recent posts. The fans that will be shown are randomly selected each time the Fan Box is published. The link underneath the Fan Box leads to your fan page on Facebook.

How to Install It?

It is super easy to do. You generate the code to add to your Web site via Facebook. The interface could not be simpler.

You can custom the number of rows of fans to be published by entering a multiple of 5 as the parameter for connections. You change that information from the code generated by Facebook before pasting it into your Web site HTML page. Two rows (10 connections) is the default. Two rows creates a widget  that will be 265 pixels tall.

The default width is 300 pixels but you can adjust it. Notice the widget must be at least 200 pixels wide and 64 pixels tall in its simplest form. If you do not wish to use the recommended Javascript, click on Advanced Options for the iframe code.

You can supply the generated code to an ad server if you wish. That is what we did for At Home with Kim Vallee.

To generate the code to add to your Web site, simply click on the Add Fan Box to your Site that is now available on the links after your Page’s profile picture. So far, several big names have implemented the Fan Box widget on their site including the World World Fund and Lance Armstrong/Livestrong.

If you used the Facebook Fab Box widget as a fan or a page administrator, can you comment on your experience?

MORE:
+ Facebook Developers