According to board member and social media guru Marc Andreessen, Facebook revenues will exceed $500 million this year, and “billions in the next few years”. There are a few monetization tools that Facebook is using to generate these revenues: major brand sponsorships, self-service advertising, Facebook currency and application ad revenue. Whether or not this justifies a $10 billion valuation remains to be seen, but the fact remains: Facebook is grabbing the attention of advertisers, worldwide.
So what does this mean for marketers and the PR world in general? For one thing, sites like Facebook and other social communities are making it much easier for advertisers to spend on smaller and smaller budgets (most with daily budgets as low as $5). For example, Youtube video promotion has gotten simpler than ever. This trend is creating a democratization of advertising, and allowing smaller companies and brands to enter organic communities to deliver targeted, specific messaging.
Second, and in my opinion, this is more important than point one (hence the bold and italics), Social actions can’t simply be purchased; they need to be a part of a larger communications strategy. Purchasing social media advertising is not like buying AdWords, or driving site clicks with 90% bounce rates to your site in the hope of getting a few acquisitions in any other digital media, and it’s not the same as buying a CPM campaign by looking at ComScore sites and building banner ads.
Building your community requires patience, transparency and a commitment to talk to your audience. It’s not as simple as purchasing media, but it can reap rewards. If your site traffic is driven exclusively by clicks purchased in Google, how well does your product information, or any product affinity, stick? If, however, you can create a space where people are discussing your brand, and associating it with a personality, message, content and purpose, your audience will be far more likely to take your message with them all the way to the cash register. Please don’t take my word for it, listen to Procter & Gamble.
Effectively communicating in social media requires answering these questions:
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What do you hope to achieve?
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What is your message?
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Where is it going and why?
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What content is driving this message?
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How are you servicing this content?
I I’m looking forward to seeing the exponential growth of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites — and I’m looking forward to seeing creative brands capture this space.