You need two websites nowadays:

One thing that this should flag up for businesses, is that a social media presence, has become, at the very least, as important as your web site. Any product-focused operation needs to be where its customers are. Social media’s power to engage an interested audience, and to enable customers and prospects to advocate your brand for free only strengthens this argument.

But there has been a backlash among the Internet population about the control online behemoths such as Facebook and Google seem to have over us. These brands are much maligned in the media..we are constantly told that these people cannot be trusted.

Facebook and Google: Friends or foes??

People have a choice. There are plenty of search engines aside from Google. There are numerous other ways to organise and enhance social lives, or to promote your brand in a positive way, other than Facebook. These are just two of the best at what they do. We use them for convenience and for the quality of their service if nothing else.

If Google started to give erroneous and irrelevant results on a regular basis, we would soon turn away. And the same with Facebook..if it was really that intrusive and “Big-brother”like, we would soon delete accounts…and the population would fall at a much faster rate than Facebook users are currently jumping ship.

Friends for sure:

Rather than being perceived as dominant and oppressive control freaks in the online space, these two brands should be embraced and appreciated for the great things they are. There are very few people reading this, who will not have benefited from either brands myriad of great services. If that wasn’t the case, we would soon be off to use someone who could give us what we want!

Some companies; Mercedes-Benz being one, have achieved a phenomenal Facebook presence by adopting this strategy. But for many, they are beginning to realise, that the measurable effects of a multitude of “likes” are actually minimal.

In fact, they are simply a forced public display of an opt-in to a brand’s social news stream. It is not what it was first presumed to be; brand advocacy.

Phase 1: Like. Phase 2: Advocate

Advocacy goes beyond an affinity with a brand and can be extremely effective at influencing other people’s behaviour. 90% of people said they would trust word-of-mouth recommendations from people they know according to the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey.

So if the wisdom of friends is becoming ever more relevant, how can you use social technologies to stitch together the wisdom of friends and increase the flow of advocacy of your brand?

Between 5-15% only of all pasts that past through people’s newsfeeds on Facebook are ever viewed. So to improve upon this, the “recommend” button was introduced. This is a form of advocacy as people are effectively saying when they use it, that “this is something which I like, and think will also be of specific interest to you”

The Google “+1″ button works along similar lines. Using this has the same effect; it publicly gives something your stamp of approval.  These stronger advocacy tools may well influence current SEO, giving much more weight to search via social interaction. That remains to be seen. But it does indicate that social media is moving into a new phase, where companies will be expected to work much harder to earn engagement and advocacy.

Fans must become genuine advocates. To achieve this, brands must create more meaningful and valuable interactions with people. It is no longer enough to be “liked”.

But determining exactly what you can do with Facebook is possibly the hard part. Relentlessly hunting for “likes” is for vanity really and nothing more! It is the equivalent for businesses of individuals competing for the most friends. It has yet to be comprehensively proven to be useful in selling anything. (although we stand to be corrected?!)

What Facebook can be used effectively as is a test bed if you like. You can gauge if something is actually going to work, by actually giving people a taster of a product and then monitoring their reaction. Facebook is the perfect place to set-up the equivalent of the perfect bricks and mortar “pop-up”store. You can quickly see what people think of your new idea and without a great deal of effort or expense.

Facebook is after all where the people are. Furthermore, it is a fast-moving environment where people are looking to access information or items of interest capriciously. They do not expect an immersive or especially refined brand environment.

Some are so used to e-commerce, that they are reluctant to embrace f-commerce fully. In fact, that out of most major retailers, there are only 10% or so, that are generating decent sales via Facebook.

But interest is starting to grow both from retailers and users alike. Consumers have more trust in Facebook, and are therefore seen as more likely to use it as a buying channel. Moreover, the introduction of Facebook’s only currency; Facebook credits; and the enthusiasm of Facebook to make it more widespread, is making transactions easier too.

Facebook is already seen as a great source for online discounts and deals. Companies are incentivising their followers in a variety of ways to acquire that all important Facebook endorsement; a “like”!

If you as a retailer, can make the prospect of buying on Facebook attractive, then you will do well. It just simplifies a process by eliminating a funnel or link in the chain. Followers see a deal, and they can click on the Facebook shop page of the relevant retailer and buy more easily. And buyers live simplicity a lot. If you can attract conversions without users having to leave Facebook, your sales and return on investment will go up significantly.

This is a good thing for both Facebook and Skype, and of course for those on Facebook. Video chat is not only immensely popular, but it is a great deal easier this way than having to leave Facebook and download Skype separately.

The service is so clean and simple, that take-up is bound to be high. Some Facebook features in the past have been far too difficult for users to get their head around, but this is quite the opposite.

Many friends and family members use Facebook as a means of keeping up-to-date in terms of what’s going on in each others’ lives. This new feature will bring real-time video conversation to all the photos and messages. This is a much more enhanced communication tool as a result.

Group video chat in addition to mobile chat have both been promised by Mark Zuckerberg, so watch out for these. As we have discussed before on this blog, Facebook is where the people are, so it is a question of providing the right features to not only keep them there, but ensure that they remain on Facebook for longer each time they visit.

With these latest efforts, Facebook is essentially transforming itself into a telecommunications platform. Perhaps the next feature will need to be a Facebook telephone directory delivered to our door in the old style!

Our online identity

Every time you click on a site or view some content, that says a lot about you. This information Facebook stores..perhaps one day your Facebook account, could be your online passport. Whether, it is a better loan rate, a holiday in Italy (because you have posted photos of your previous visit) your online identity is highly valuable information,and this will only grow in importance. As companies hone their predictive analysis algorithms, it will become easier to match up particular products and services with our online values and personality.

Our online reputation

There is also reputation to consider. Product referrals from someone with a huge social network for example, or a blog post to many followers advocating a product, can both act as a currency of sorts. If our friends “like” it, we already know that research has shown how that can impact our own purchasing decisions.Brand perception is everything on the social web, and that is why it is so critical for brands to be engaging with their target audience. The ability of these brands to align with our own set of values will define their success on Facebook and other social media platforms, and ultimately in the offline world.

Facebook $

The use of Facebook credits is also predicted to rise significantly, and fast. At the moment, they are largely confined to the purchase of virtual goods within the Facebook world. But with 500m+ users..there are many countries with their own currencies and with far less populations! If consumers can be sold the virtual currency in a way that gives them confidence, this could soon become commonplace as a currency for everyday transactions.

The people will decide, but if you make it easy for them, it can work across pretty much every aspect of our lives.

Engagement has been somewhat hard to define in any case. The Cluetrain Manifesto’s point that markets are conversations is well-documented, but in the case of Facebook, markets are actually special offers and deals.

It makes sense that with 1 in 11 humans on this planet registered as Facebook users, that companies should focus on exploiting this ultimate shopping mall. Many are active users too, so you can get involved with F-commerce, and provide yourself with a global market in a short space of time.

Therefore it makes complete sense to market to shoppers where they spend most of their time. And the reason they are following you is important. They want deals! Not only that, but if you can attract your followers via special offers, the psychology of sharing can then come into play. Then you have brand advocacy and sales in one hit…

Certainly, in the past 12 months, more and more businesses have jumped on to the Facebook bandwagon. Realising that many of their customers were actively using Facebook, they set up pages for their brand and ruthlessly marketed their product or service. What was the result?

Your target customer knows Facebook better than you:

The result was worse than if you had not bothered at all. Social Media is interaction, loyalty building, patience, collaboration, listening..not aggressive marketing. Indeed, some profiles were even removed by Facebook because they were being used as nothing more than a direct marketing tool.

Any good will customers had towards a brand was quickly destroyed. Brands seemed to be completely out-of-touch by doing it all the wrong way; and previously loyal customers, were quick to disassociate themselves.

Facebook can be  a stand-alone element of your business:

Set-up your Facebook Business Page, and then use applications to pull in content from your blog and Twitter account  to keep your page full of fresh, frequently updated information. Resist the urge to turn your page into a watered-down version of your website. Include some offers, media or conversation on Facebook that does not appear anywhere else.

The Android application Angry Birds was one of the most popular games with the Facebook community, as well as social networking apps such as Facebook and Twitter for Android. Sony Ericsson’s signature Android applications Timescape and Mediascape were also regular favourites, as well as email clients and messaging apps such as eBuddy.

Since the advent of smartphones, apps have begun to take the world by storm, facilitating online activity and providing instant entertainment and casual gaming right from users’ pockets. With a total of four handsets now available on the acclaimed Android platform, Sony Ericsson is a firm evangelist of mobile applications, illustrated by its weekly feature on Facebook, App of the Week.

Ben Padley, Head of Digital and CRM for Sony Ericsson, said: “It’s no surprise that social networks have a major role in our fans’ use of mobile applications, such is the popularity of social networking amongst our core demographic.

“In addition, through our various Facebook initiatives such as Fan of the Week, we have seen that our fans love to be creative and share their content and experiences with other fans on the page, so it’s no surprise that they enjoy using our signature Timescape and Mediascape applications either.”

Aside from the Facebook page, fans can also get all of the latest news regarding Sony Ericsson products and services via both the Sony Ericsson Twitter feed, and also the Sony Ericsson YouTube channel.

It does not take a great deal of money to emulate some of the successes of the big corporates in social media. What you need is time, patience, persistence, and the courage to take a few risks into the unknown ..after all no-one can predict exactly what it will take to encourage your followers to share your content. We can help you in all of the above, but alas have no crystal ball..so cannot promise instant success!

You update your page too often or too little. There isn’t an exact science to figuring out when you should send out a tweet, post to Facebook or update other social sites, but you should figure out some general guidelines that fit for your company. Try to update your social sites at least a few times a week and daily if possible. If you notice that customers are complaining about frequency, adjust accordingly.

Your messaging is too promotional. Your followers and subscribers do not want to be “sold” or bombarded with marketing messages. Your audience is used to being barraged with marketing messages from all angles — in their homes, at work, on the street. The last thing they want is to opt in to another marketing message from a brand that they trust and enjoy. Keep the promotions to a minimum and try to provide meaningful and useful content to your followers.

You don’t offer value to your followers. Also related to messaging is the possible lack of value propositions. Set up a clear idea of how you will use each social site and what type of value you’ll be providing. Then, communicate it clearly. Most people follow brands on social sites to get deals and discounts. Make sure you understand your consumers’ motivations for following you and respond accordingly.

You aren’t promoting your social profiles enough. “If you build it, they will come.” That old adage may be true for football stadiums, but it’s not true for social media profiles. You need to get the word out that you’re using certain social platforms. While some dedicated fans may find you via search or by perusing the web, others need a bit of encouragement. Use your website, promotional material, and even business cards to get the message out there.

Your need to interact more. Social media is, well, meant to be social. If you aren’t responding to questions or engaging with your followers, chances are they think you’re just a blank-faced marketer or an automated feed updating your company’s social sites. Give your social profiles a face by engaging with the community.

All sounds daunting..it does not need to be. Please get in touch. I am sure we can help you out!