Facebook Advertising
Facebook advertising didn’t exist during the social media giant’s first inception, and the innovators at Facebook were much like those at Google in that they weren’t exactly sure how they would monetize their site. And when they first began to experiment, the preliminary Facebook advertising attempts were sloppy trial runs to say the least. Little did they know that in less than half a decade Facebook advertising would not only be a major success and a billion dollar industry, but change the entire idea and face of the advertising industry all together. No longer would an ad or product for that matter be speaking at its audience, but instead engage in meaningful reciprocal exchanges.
Facebook Advertising | The Evolution
Just back in 2007, Facebook advertising made its first baby steps with Beacon and took a few tumbles until it realized that it may have not been quite ready to stand on its own two feet. Beacon was somewhat of a disaster, and Facebook users really had a beef with the platform when they discovered that they were unintentionally sharing embarrassing purchases amongst their networks.
They finally moved Facebook advertising forward with a somewhat less intrusive yet somewhat unoriginal approach, display ads. Not to say that they didn’t have their heads in right place with user “likes”, etc., to convince users to make the click, but for the most part it didn’t break the traditional boundaries of advertising, yet…
Facebook Advertising | Its New Face
Now, after Facebook’s unveiling of new omniscient features that pretty much paint the digital life of their users into their very own biographical high-tech scrapbooks, Facebook advertising was also personified and made into a beneficial part of the social media unit. That being said, Facebook Pages also tell us a story with their Timelines and incorporate their products and services into our life stories as well through apps and interactive content. The new Facebook advertising platform doesn’t only encourage quality, but demands user friendly content and a desire to develop relationships with its consumer counterparts.
This isn’t a punishment for the brands either, its quite the opposite. As Facebook advertising encourages mutual understanding and dialogue between brands and people, users will in turn revert back to the most efficient yet lost method of brand promotion – word of mouth. Basically a scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours mentality.
Todd Wasserman of Mashable gives a great example of just how this works in his article on Facebook advertising:
It turns out that approaching friends of that base may be the best way to do this. Why? Think back to the last time a friend convinced you to take a flyer on a new product or maybe made you think of an old brand in a new way. For instance, I have a friend who is a total Mac-head who surprised me last year when he said that Windows 7 was as good as the Mac OS. Movies are another good example. Have you ever written off a new movie only to be completely turned around when a friend told you it was actually really good? (Of course, this cuts the other way, too.)
Facebook Advertising | Don Draper Would Be Proud
The new Facebook advertising strategy doesn’t intend to give companies a little pep-talk about the importance of quality (my hands sweat when witness to Zuckerberg’s lack of stage presence anyways), but rather they plan on walking each lame brand right off the pirate’s plank one by one to swim with the sharks. How will they do this? Through easy to understand transparent analytics that let social surfers know whose pages are getting love and which are as empty as a fat kid’s lunchbox.
Facebook advertising just breathed life back into brands and it was a long time coming, Don Draper would be proud.
Image attribution: http://www.mommybloggersguide.com/2009/12/50-in-free-facebook-advertising.html