“The Selling Power of Friendship”
Very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday about the “Selling Power of Friendship.” The article outlines how Facebook intends to boost revenue by selling targeted and personalized ads based upon the voluminous data it has collected on the likes and Facebook activity of its users. It’s called “Social Context Advertising.”
For example, when Facebook users “like” an ad, Facebook could feature the names of your friends who have indicated they “like” the ad/brand somewhere in the design of the ad.
Shiv Singh, notable social media researcher/practitioner, says, “The social ads are interesting, because you feel that you are connecting to a brand through an endorsement from someone.”
It’s clear from Sheryl Sandberg’s quote that Facebook understands the power word-of-mouth has in improving the effectiveness of marketing.
However, Augie Ray from Forrester brings up a good point about the value of a Facebook fan. Augie says “there is no intrinsic value to a Facebook fan” that is “… until the brand does something to create value with Facebook fans.”
Marketers must not confuse “liking” a brand with “championing” and “advocating” a brand. It’s simple and quick for a person to click a button indicating they “like” a brand. But is it truly meaningful?
Word of mouth takes on a whole different meaning when a person goes out of their way to share their appreciation for a brand by talking about it over happy hour drinks with co-workers, during a dinner get-together with neighbors, and on the phone with a good friend. That’s the true selling power of friendship!
John,
I have already seen this in my Facebook profile, noticing adds that my friends like. It does bring up a bit of a privacy and permission question in my mind. Shouldn’t Facebook get explicit permission from users before using them to endorse advertisements? Makes me wonder if my name is showing up on ads.
Jay … Facebook seems to think just by “liking” a brand, it gives them permission to do social context advertising. I don’t know the ins/outs of the Facebook privacy settings but I’m with you … this gives me the heebie jeebies. (Okay. You didn’t say heebie jeebies, I did.)
Personally, I am extremely selective in what I share and the brands/things I “like” on Facebook because I have the heebie jeebies for getting the heebie jeebies. DIg?
Great observation that “Like” does not mean “Endorse” or “Champion”. If I “Like” something, that doesn’t mean I think all or any of my friends should like it too.
Couldn’t agree more. With the increasing number of ‘Likes’, fans and so-called endorsements their respective value/meaning in terms of WoM-value will drop fast. WoM will inherit advertising’s problem: there will be too much WoM and you will need to find a way to make it stand out. How ironical. Willem
Another interesting point that should be brought up about the “like” button on Facebook is the ambiguity of it, such as with the now almost non-existant poke. The “like” button brings with it a certain amount of vagueness that hurts its effectiveness. When one “likes” an ad for example is it because they enjoy using the product included? Is it because they feel the ad is funny or find the model inside attractive? It inherently just brands your name beside the post but leaves out any details beyond saying that you don’t dislike it. A real effective method though is posting an ad to the Wall in some form or another such as a video link. I just recently found saw a YouTube link on a friends wall that led to a Sony Ericsson commercial. I then spent the next twenty minutes watching the different variations of this commercial on YouTube. Because my friend took the time to actually post something to his wall the attraction was grater than if I had seen a one line message saying he had liked a video. That is where the true value is.
I am sorry for the roughness of the last post. I hit the post button without rereading and then slapped my forehead. If you wish there is a better post below.
Another interesting point that should be brought up about the “like” button on Facebook is the ambiguity of it, such as with the now almost non-existant “poke”. The “like” button brings with it a certain amount of vagueness that hurts its effectiveness. When one “likes” an ad for example. Was it because they enjoy using the product? Is it because they feel the ad is funny, or find the model inside attractive? “Like” inherently just brands your name beside the post but leaves out any details beyond saying that you don’t dislike it. A real effective method though is posting an ad to the “Wall” in some form or another. such as a video link. I just recently saw a YouTube link on a friends wall that led to a Sony Ericsson commercial. I then spent the next twenty minutes watching the different variations of this commercial on YouTube. Because my friend took the time to actually post something to his wall the attraction was grater than if I had seen a one line message saying he “liked” a video. That is where the true value is, in the personal statement. The pure quantity and lack of expression leaves the “Like” almost meaningless.
Interesting that Word of Mouth is no longer really restricted to live conversations - with the power of the internet and so many places for consumers to express themselves, they can now share their opinions with perhaps ten or a hundred times more people than we could do a few years ago.
Which makes me think two things:
1. How do brands harness this meaningfully - its all very well to get excited about the possibility of having a huge number of fans but what do we do with them on a day to day basis to make the interaction meaningful?
2. What happens when we get inundated with WOM? How will consumers deal with clutter in this space and how will brands break through the clutter and make a stand out impression?
3. If apps like Facebook continue their journey towards commercialization of WOM then will consumers still want to use it? Unlike TV in the 70’s where consumers had no control (beyond the remote), on the internet we can always migrate to a new app if an old one offends us - as I suspect Facebook is doing to many of its consumers.
Sriram
Oops - two things became three things before I could correct the opening line…
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch since I found it for him smile Therefore let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!