The Facebook Marketing Update

–

Spring 2011

Introduction

When Mark Zuckerberg addressed the audience at

Facebook’s 2010 f8 developers conference he delivered

on his promise of

“

the most transformative thing we'veever done for the web

”. Zuckerberg’s presentationdidn’t contain much in the way of new goals

, theimportant takeaways were the speed and energy withwhich Facebook was now following a direction alreadywell known. At the previous event, with just shy of 100million users, they had announced Facebook Connect tosupport their objective

that “

social platforms wouldnow focus on the Web, not social networksthemselves

”.

Now, with more than 400 million users, Facebook was rapidly providing the tools for aWeb that is indexed by personal relationships and preferences. The user will now be at the center oftheir own Web experience and Facebook will be helping them to get there. Links will be supplanted byLikes. Marketers have to look beyond Facebook.com and consider the opportunities being provided totheir own site.

Zuckerberg revealed Facebook’s name for the

new paradigm: The Open Graph.In the ensuing months Web marketers have seen their to-do lists steadily fed with new items fromFacebook that provide opportunities for their own sites. On August 18 Facebook Places was announcedas an important location based marketing service. An October 13 partnership with Bing gave the OpenGraph greater influence on search results. Facebook Deals became part of the social buying landscapeon November 2. In March 2011 the Like button gained added functionality and a commenting systemwas announced to provide social relevance to Web feedback . Meanwhile Facebook continued toenhance the Pages that businesses use as their home base on Facebook.com.This eBook looks at the recent opportunities with insights as to how Web marketers can use and benefitfrom them. Facebook now has approximately 600 million users and they most likely know somethingabout your customers. These are some guidelines for an effective partnership.

Jeff Ente, Director

Who's Blogging What

www.WhosBloggingWhat.com

Twitter:@wbw

Jeff

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