Social Media Extroversion: Does your brand need to get out more often?

by Erik May 5, 2010 • 03:53 pm •

Several months ago, we created our own Olive and Company Facebook Page. This fact probably won’t surprise anyone since A) we are in the creative services industry and more and more of our projects include social media elements, and B) most of us have been actively using Facebook as individuals for quite some time now. With that said, we thought we’d take some time to discuss our reasons for creating a Facebook Page, and invite you to follow us as our Page(1) grows and evolves.

Olive is looking for some more Facebook friends.

Behold … the Social Media Revolution
Even if you’ve somehow managed to avoid Facebook entirely up to this point, it’s impossible to ignore the staggering number of people that have embraced the site and use it regularly. According to their own statistics, of 400 million active users, over 50% log on to Facebook every day, and average users spend more than 55 minutes on the site per day. And, while some people continue to believe that Facebook is primarily just for the college crowd, active use by older demographics has skyrocketed in the past year, and nearly 50% of Facebook users in the US are now ages 26 and older.

According to internet tracking firm Hitwise, Facebook even temporarily surpassed Google as the most popular Web site in the US for the week ending on March 13th, 2010. During that week, Facebook accounted for 7.07 percent of all US Internet Activity while Google accounted for 7.03 percent. While Google will likely reclaim its place atop the rankings, the fact that it’s even close raises an interesting question: How would you feel about your interactive marketing strategy if your company didn’t exist on Google? Facebook may not be a search engine, but it is a vital part of the online experience for hundreds of millions of people, and ignoring that fact may soon become as damaging as being blacklisted by the search giant.

Reaching beyond the traditional Web site
Clearly, Facebook has become an immensely popular Web site, and, more importantly, it has become an increasingly well-connected hub to everyone’s social media network, offering new and unique ways for companies to engage clients, customers, partners and prospects. With a relatively small commitment of time(2), companies can create communities, build brands, and foster relationships with individuals in a more casual, personal and immediate way than with other interactive communications.

In most cases, Facebook should not be thought of as a replacement for the traditional Web site, but rather as a complementary site that can be used to promote new content, products, events and news while potentially driving traffic to other traditional sites and improving the search engine rankings of those sites. People may initially visit a traditional Web site to learn about a company and its products and services, but, once that initial contact has been established, it’s easier for individuals to follow a company on Facebook and passively receive updates and notifications than it is for them to regularly visit a traditional Web site and seek out new information. If average users spend 55 minutes per day on Facebook, it seems logical to go and meet them where they like to hang out.

With the help of an expanding list of Facebook applications and Facebook Markup Language (FBML), it’s possible to leverage pre-existing content from your current, traditional Web site as well as sources like Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and blogs to populate your Page with timely information to supplement Facebook status updates and discussions. In fact, companies like Alvenda – for whom we are currently working on several exciting projects – even offer innovative solutions that enable companies to sell their products from directly within the Facebook interface.

Since Facebook users choose for themselves whether or not they want to follow a company – and have the ability to stop following at any time – they have, in effect, granted permission to the followed company to communicate with them and to market to them. That’s an incredibly powerful connection between a company and an individual, and, on some level, that connection implies a valuable trusted referral to everyone else to whom that individual is connected. Therein lies the true business value of Facebook: The viral nature of social media means that each new connection may lead to a major sale, an exciting new project or a richly-rewarding partnership. Traditional Web sites help establish the relationship between a company and an individual, but Facebook Pages provide companies with a unique ability to foster each of those relationships over time.

The Olive and Company approach thus far
As it stands currently, the Olive and Company Facebook Page is very much a work in progress. Our approach with Facebook and other social media has been to get in early, start small, and find the best ways each site or application can help us as a business and a brand. We’ve integrated our Twitter feed and the RSS feed from our Olive Blog, and as our followers increase, we plan to start utilizing the discussion forums and polls to expand the dialogue. Who knows, we may even start providing sneak peaks at our latest and greatest projects.

For those of you who think Facebook is just another fad, and that it will be gone in another year … well … you might be right. I personally don’t believe that will be the case, but the rapid development of technological advancements could lead to something bigger and better by next Tuesday. We don’t know if Facebook will adapt, or if people will tire of social media outlets, but, ultimately, it doesn’t matter. 400 million people use Facebook right now, and, for us, that audience is simply too huge to ignore.

So, please … join us. Drop by the Olive and Company Facebook Page today and click the “Like” button. If I had 101 iPads, I would give one away to each of the first 100 people to follow us (keeping one for myself, of course). Sadly, I don’t have any iPads at all and I definitely won’t be giving any away. I will, however, grant each of you my eternal gratitude.

Observations? Insights? Nonsensical spam?

As always, I’d love to hear what everyone thinks. Which companies are doing the best job on Facebook? How essential is a Facebook presence for a company? Are there certain types of Pages that you are more likely to follow than others? Let your voice be heard in the comments below (or by commenting on our actual Facebook Page.)