Facebook has developed apps for business and government to make it easy to use as a channel for individuals and business/government to provide and exchange information.
Does it work? Yes – but it’s not magic. Creative design and vibrant content are required.
Here’s illustrations of an innovative approach – one by business and one by government.
Proctor & Gamble has moved its advertizing from print to social media to help sell their product line – soap, personal care, and consumer products. Ads can be targeted based on location and preference of the individual users.
The Facebook pages provide a variety of ways to present P & G products – text and static pictures like print media, as well as audio tracks, video, and interactive navigation of material.
With this flexibility, the company feels they can create active content to entice the consumer to buy their products that will be more effectively than static print ads. They also expect to reduce cost in the process.
In Congress, House Republicans have created the Citizen Cosponsor Project app using Facebook. In their words, it is a dynamic communications platform to enable the user to follow legislation and receive first-hand information from the House as it moves through the legislative process, and express support by becoming a bill Citizen Cosponsor.
These two examples illustrate how social media is being used to raise awareness of products or legislation and engage the users by incorporating an interactive component. Accomplishing anything similar using traditional channels would be costly and cannot scale to an audience of even a small percentage of the 800,000,000+ users in Facebook..
How will you use social media to further your mission?
Nice examples Jack. Organizations who have typically relied on print advertising have a lot to gain from starting up campaigns through social media. It’s incredible (and a bit frightening) what you can with targeted advertising on things like Facebook and LinkedIn.
Jeff:
Thanks for your comment.
I agree that the potential to reach others is incredible via social media and networks, and there are so many stories of wildly successful results – ranging from a friend sharing a story about a fellow student who passed away suddenly with no funds to permit her body to be shipped to her home country for burial, or the lawyer who struggled to get attendees for a legal self-help event who filled the room within 6 hours of publication on a social media site.
Powerful means of matching offers and wants.
…And it just keeps evolving.