The Evolution of Facebook for Brands
By Jason Weaver On MashableJason Weaver is the CEO of Shoutlet, an enterprise social management software company he founded. He has been involved in social media strategy development since its inception for brands that include Disney, SC Johnson, and eBay. Follow him at @Shoutlet.
Facebook Timeline for businesses is officially here, and companies large and small are anticipating how the new changes will affect their existing Facebook presence. The early data creates a promising picture, with one report suggesting that brands are getting an average 46% more engagement with Timeline. But before we look too far in the future, let’s take a look at the major Facebook milestones that got us to this point.
Brand Pages (2007)
Facebook has only been around for eight years, but what’s particularly hard to believe is that it was roughly five years ago that the social network opened up Facebook Pages, allowing brands and celebrities to create a profile dedicated to developing and posting original content meant to encourage fan interaction.
The introduction of brand pages is what moved the needle for Facebook, helping them make the transition from a networking platform for college kids to one that included young professionals. Since then, we’ve seen Facebook’s user base grow to more than 845 million monthly active users. Brand pages allowed this audience to build social relationships with a company for the first time ever.
“Becoming a Fan” (2009)
Brand pages were one of the first ways consumers could “raise their hand” online. By becoming a fan of a certain company, users said something about themselves to their friends. For brands, this meant developing content and a voice for an entirely new channel, one that taught many of them about what resonated with current and potential customers. This created a shift in how social media was viewed by businesses. It went from a “nice-to-have” to a “must-have” business tool. Now, we’re seeing companies invest heavily in their social presence due to the incredible value of social fans.
Contests and Promotions (2009)
With contests and promotions, updated and expanded in 2009, brands grew their fan bases. A fan’s involvement in a contest or promotion told that fan’s network that they thought a brand was cool, and that others should consider becoming fans, too. For businesses, contests and promotions opened up conversations about fan-driven revenue and the monetary value of a Facebook presence.
Storefronts and Ads (2010)
As Facebook became a hub for product sharing, brands started seeing the potential in using it to make money directly from the platform. Facebook commerce was particularly seen as a way to develop a source of additional revenue, but the value wasn’t just in the click-to-conversion. Product popularity was boosted by sharing among networks, and brands began to learn which products were hot among various audience sets.
This year, Facebook unveiled the ads premium model, where marketers will be able to take page posts and turn them into ads. These ads can be targeted to anyone. The combination of ads plus social commerce is a natural way for a brand to bolster certain products. This revolutionary step was the perfect lead into Timeline.
Facebook Timeline (2012)
So what does the switch to Facebook Timeline for brands mean now? It means telling brand stories and sharing engaging content takes center stage. Everything from the cover photo to milestones is a part of a brand’s ability to add to its online persona. Instead of disparate posts, Timeline is designed to allow a brand to truly narrate a story, over time.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, -Oxford-
