Ever want to find your competitors on Facebook? Well, Facebook company page directories are a good place to start. Didn’t know Facebook had directory pages within the site? Neither did I until my helpful Facebook account rep turned me on to them.
Facebook’s Directories are divided by major categories, including:
Each category is further subdivided. For example, a Directory of Restaurants that have set up homes on Facebook can be found under the “Stores” category. What’s really great is that listings are in order of fan count. Those pages with more fans are at the top of the list. For restaurants, the top five pages, ranked by number of fans, are:
That’s what makes Facebook directories such a great tool for competitive monitoring. You can see how your company’s fan base stacks up against the competition. Directories are the first step in making Facebook a more browser-friendly environment. Now, how about fixing search next, Zuckerberg?
Like many of you out there I am sure you have had your fill this year of Social Networks.
MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, OpenSocial, Gorooze, the list goes on and on. Well I say, enough is enough already. I heard this acronym at BlogWorldExpo – YASN – Yet Another Social Network
According to data on Alexa:
- 1/3 of all web visitors in august 07 visited Myspace
- 1/7 of all web visitors in august 07 visited Facebook
- 5 of the top 10 sites are all web 2.0 site in the world
- ½ of the top 30 are all social networking sites
Powerful data and powerful growth by these sites which point to their diversity and only you will know which ones would be the best fit for you and your brand. But I would like to suggest you adopt a strategy for solely for Facebook:
1) Why Facebook?
- With 60 Million users in 2007, 50% of which return daily this one should be tops on your list!
2) Make your Facebook profile a source for quality content
- Sure throwing sheep and poking people is fun but why not add value to the conversation by posting quality content (small side note – if you read the fine print, Facebook owns all content on the Facebook site)
3) Use Facebook as a clearinghouse for everything you are doing online for your “community” by filtering content you find on the web, why not:
- add Twitter application – so others can see what you are doing
- add Del.icio.us application – so others can see what you are tagging
- add the StumbleUpon – so others can see what you are finding interesting
- add zuPort for YouTube – so others can see what videos you posted
4) Start a group on Facebook – either for an area of interest or for your brand
- the Seinfeld group started with just 10 members by the very next day it was up to 2000 members!
In general, you need to think of these social networks as a way of people interacting with your own brand so why not leave a trail of digital breadcrumbs back to your brand by using widgets from other applications to dress up your Facebook profile!
While widgets, like ringtones, have largely been about expressing oneself, there is a new widget paradigm taking place whose influence will be felt at the cash registers for many consumer marketers who have embraced social media and have dipped their virtual toe into the emerging widget economy. To these few brave organizations, your strategies will pay off and we salute you.
First up is TicketMaster, who just yesterday announced their ticket affiliate sales program. Not surprisingly, widget distribution is at the heart of their affiliate offering, and what better way to share the love (for money that is) than with a customizeable widget to show your support for your favorite touring band.
Ticketmaster’s new EventEngine widget allows registered affiliate individuals and organizations to create and post a customized Ticketmaster event marketing engine on their blog or web site that dynamically serves information regarding upcoming events with links to purchase tickets via Ticketmaster’s web site. Affiliates will eventually have access to Ticketmaster search buttons, banners, and link engines.
Widgets are an ideal marketing vehicle for getting those referral links out there. Hats off to the people at IAC and TicketMaster who found a way to make affiliate marketing engaging, in-context and profitable all at the same time. This is a trend that we will continue to see as marketers leverage social networks and develop sophisticated widgets that provide added value content as well as a way to monetize niche audiences.
This photo was taken nearly 8 years ago at an event I organized featuring a chess exhibition with World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov taking on Grammy-award winner Sting and his band. This post was made via Flickr.
Good marketing is like pornography, you know it when you see it. That’s how I felt about seat-of-the-pants apparel marketer Gap, the latest consumer brand to throw its hat into the widget ring.
Gap ModelMaker widget, distributed via WidgetBox, should come with a warning on the install, “ugly people need not bother.” The mini app does exactly as advertised, “instantly transform(s) you into a Gap model. Choose your pose, your outfit, and your scene–then add some bling.” If only it could do something about my receding hairline.
From the programming wizards at FancyGens, this engaging diversion should appeal to everyone’s vanity. Simply upload your picture (or anyone else’s for that matter), or point to a URL with your image and the wiget does the rest. It places the subject’s face in a model cut-out and, for all America’s Next Top Model wannabe’s, allows you to choose your pose, clothing and scenic backdrop for your 15 minutes of fame.
Whenever you get a consumer personally invested in a brand to the point of identifying their own image within the brand’s marketing persona, it’s a home run for the marketer. I’ve seen the new face of widget marketing, and its yours with the Gap ModelMaker. “I’m the face if you want it, I’m the face if you want it babe,” Pete Towenshend, The Who.
Here’s my son, Lucas, in his first Gap model spread.
Download Gap ModelMaker here
