Facebook

Facebook Is Changing The Game With Facebook Messages

As planned, Facebook made it’s major announcement today – Facebook Messages. The poorly kept secret that Facebook was entering into messaging was greeted with mixed response. With Facebook’s extensive reach of approximately 500 million users, many observers believed Facebook Messages could challenge the leading email providers like Google’s Gmail. The early hype of “Gmail killer” may have been overstated, but Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook engineer Andrew Bosworth explained that their new endeavor, code-named Project Titan, is more than just another emal client.

Facebook Messages is a re-imaging of messaging and a new look at digital communication. It integrates email, instant messaging and text messaging into one ongoing conversation. At the center of the platform is what is described by the company as “seamless messaging”. It’s a system that combines the conventional communication lines. It allows users to communicate via email but if you’re signed into Facebook with Chat open, an incoming email will pop-up in an IM window so it is readily available. When you respond, it is automatically returned as an email. If your friend continues the conversation after you have signed out of Facebook, your message can be pushed to your phone via a Facebook iPhone app (and a likely upcoming Android app).

In addition, Facebook has eliminated the usual email threads and separate chat logs, in favor of a single conversation history it calls the “Social Inbox”. If you’re thinking that a single chat history will lead to a lot of noise, spam, and a generally cluttered inbox, Facebook is using what it knows about your social network to filter priority messages from messages that aren’t immediately registered as spam by Gmail’s Priority Inbox.

I believe the integration of various messaging methods is a big step forward in communication which will be readily accepted by Facebook fans and probably has already caused some emergency strategy sessions at Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL and especially Google. Facebook expects to add IMAP email integration so the new service will work with Gmail.

Despite Facebook’s innovative approach, I don’t think it’s a “Gmail killer.”  For example, Facebook Messages will eliminate the Subject Line, CC, and BCC (I would imagine because it’s difficult to add to the integrated SMS and IM messages). This alone will be a deal breaker for many users. It is also likely that Facebook Messages will not support HTML messages since it will be integrated with SMS and IM, although we do not have confirmation on this point. If true, users will not be able to send any specially formated messages. Meaning no messages with images or a company banner can be sent through this system. Facebook Messages is clearly designed for social messaging between friends and not for business oriented activities.

Facebook hinted at its future plans on its blog, “Relatively soon, we’ll probably all stop using arbitrary ten digit numbers and bizarre sequences of characters to contact each other. We will just select friends by name and be able to share with them instantly. We aren’t there yet, but the changes today are a small first step.” Facebook Voice anyone?…the Google Voice team will be meeting bright and early tomorrow morning.

According to Zuckerberg, the new Facebook Messages system will be rolled out very slowly over the next couple of months, starting today with an invite-only beta launch. You can request your own invite here at the Facebook Messages page. Check out the Facebook video below.

Let us know what you think of the new Facebook Messages, leave a comment below.

The Top 2 Mistakes That Kill Most Social Media Marketing Campaigns
October 7, 2010

The Top 2 Mistakes That Kill Most Social Media Marketing Campaigns

Social media marketing (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) is one of the hottest trends in online marketing. Companies of all sizes and in all industries are using Twitter to engage with their audience and to promote their brand.  But many of these companies are inexperienced in social media marketing and don’t use it properly, which undermines their ultimate goal of increasing leads and sales.

Not only can a poorly designed social media marketing campaign be ineffective, it can damage your brand and drive away customers.  Just ask Walmart, Ford and KFC who all had major online marketing blunders that cost them.

There are 2 MAJOR common social media marketing mistakes we see.


1.  Trying to sell online.

This is very hard for most companies and people to understand. I’ll make it simple for you – Don’t Try To Sell Your Product/Service On Social Media Sites!! – period, end of story.  Why, you ask? Social media is often likened to a party; the same etiquette used at an offline event should be followed online.  If I walked into your party and immediately started trying to sell you things, you would make an excuse to leave. Everyone would talk about me negatively behind my back. I might not be invited to other events and likely wouldn’t make a single sell.  Guess what – the same thing happens online too.

The #1 question we get is, “So when do I promote my __________?”  You don’t. You drive your followers/friends to your website or landing page. Your website is your money site.

You should only send sales messages to people that have specifically opted in for them.  An example would be sending an exclusive discount offer as a special gift to fans on your Facebook fan page. But notice, I framed it as a “special gift” for being our fan. Not a blatant, mass sales pitch.

2.  Not engaging with people

Another concept that’s hard for people to follow is that social media is for one-on-one or many-to-many engagement. To use social media effectively, you must create a two-way communication with people.  A real discussion.

That means listening and interacting with people instead of broadcasting one way marketing messages.

One way to engage your followers is to give them free, credible information (not just yours).  For example, if you own a flower shop,  you could send out notices when it’s time to replant certain flowers or plants. Your followers, who are likely flower/plant lovers, will be grateful that you provided this information. They may even send you a message asking a few questions on what type of soil they should use. So, you respond with the answer and maybe a brief sentence or two letting them know that you carry that brand of soil in your store and they can go to your website to get more detailed information on the product.

This kind of customer engagement builds brand loyalty and repeat customers which is what it’s all about from a business standpoint.

So before you begin a social media marketing campaign, develop a strategy about HOW you plan to engage with people and your customers.

You should also have a sales funnel designed and ready to go BEFORE implementing the any campaign. However, that’s another subject we’ll have to cover in a future posts.

Have you ever committed these mistakes? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.