Tag Archive: facebook

Why Every Cause Marketer Should Buy Facebook Marketing for Dummies

Written on February 13, 2012 in Cause Marketing & Social Media
15 Comments

I’m really proud of my buddy, John Haydon. He just published his first book, Facebook Marketing for Dummies. I can’t think of a person more capable of writing this title for Wiley Publishing than John. He has incredible knowledge of Facebook marketing.

I’m lucky because I don’t need this book as much you do. I have John. He and I have been friends since we met on Twitter in 2008. If I have a question about Facebook, I just call him.

Now you can too by buying this helpful book, which shares all the things John would tell me about Facebook marketing (minus all the swear words and talk about how skinny and hairy he is compared to how fat and bald I am).

Combined with John’s amazing blog, the book gives you one stop shopping for Facebook marketing advice. And all for sixteen bucks!

From a cause marketing perspective, this book is an important addition to the tool chest. Facebook is by far the most dominant social media platform for cause marketing. In a post I wrote for ForMomentum.com for Valentine’s Day, which will be live today or tomorrow, two of the three programs I featured were Facebook like promotions.

But as we’re all learning from John, successful cause marketing on Facebook is more than just getting likes. He’ll show you how to travel the long road to Facebook success: engagement.

Besides being a super guy, something I wish all of you could experience for yourself because I’ve never had more fun or laughed so hard or learned so much than when I’m hanging with John, he’s truly the Facebook Guy.

Now, if that’s not enough to get you to buy Facebook Marketing for Dummies, how about seeing a bare chested John in a frilly apron?

 

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What Facebook’s Changes Mean for Cause Marketing

Written on September 26, 2011 in Cause Marketing & Social Media
16 Comments

Facebook made some interesting changes last week that may help evolve how nonprofits and businesses use Facebook “likes” for cause marketing. The change should shakeup how organizations weigh the meaning/worth of a Facebook “like.”

All of us have seen Facebook cause marketing programs before. If you “like” the nonprofit’s (or sometimes the businesses’) page the company makes a donation to the nonprofit. I call it action-triggered cause marketing because it requires no purchase from the user, just an action.

I came across one of these Facebook like promotions just last week. For September 19th only Weight Watchers agreed to donate a dollar to Share Our Strength, an anti-hunger organization, for every Facebook like on the company’s or nonprofit’s page.

Facebook “like” cause marketing promotions are simple transactional programs that raise nonprofits a few bucks and increase their Facebook following, which might help turn fans into supporters.

Moving forward Facebook visitors won’t have to “like” a page to comment and post on it. This makes a “like” a less valuable piece of property because visitors won’t have to opt-in to participate. As John Haydon points out, just as comments grew and engagement changed when visitors to blogs didn’t have to register to comment, Facebook’s changes will lower the bar of entry for participation.

But what will be the impact on cause marketing promotions involving Facebook likes?

We may see fewer promotions as the like button will no longer be the holy grail of Facebook pages – engagement will. This is a good thing. John has always stressed to me that ending up on someone’s news feed is more difficult than just having them “like” your page.

Facebook has a sophisticated tool called Edgerank that decides if your update is included in someone else’s newsfeed. Interest, frequency and engagement determine your fate.

Here’s what I’ll be recommending to my clients for cause marketing promotions involving Facebook likes.

  1. Businesses should reward nonprofits for a variety of activities, not just liking a page. They could reward comments, posting of pictures and video, actions take over multiple days or weeks. John believes Facebook will be rolling out a whole sleuth of tools to make measuring engagement easier for nonprofits and businesses.
  2. The changes to Facebook pages punctuates the need for businesses and nonprofits to get serious about creating first-class content. Managing a Facebook page is like running an interactive magazine that has deadlines, a real need for engaging and varied content and a drive battle every day to rise above the noise and competition. Managing a Facebook page will now be more more like turning out People Magazine than getting votes on American Idol.

Nonprofits and businesses shouldn’t stop doing Facebook like programs. We need good online cause marketing options. The key is to look beyond the first kiss and encourage and reward frequent and deeper interaction. Facebook likes are a good start between nonprofits and users. But it’s what happens next that proves whether it’s like or love.

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Using Cause Marketing to Get Likes on Facebook

Written on September 8, 2010 in Cause Marketing & Social Media
6 Comments

I’m glad John Haydon introduced me to Danny Brown, because he’s given me a great idea on how to extend my retail point-of-sale programs to Facebook where I can get “likes” for my nonprofit and my retail partners.

Danny’s starting point is getting offline retail coupons online to Facebook.

Grab the artwork from your existing flyer (or make one unique to Facebook) and then transfer that to a tab on your page’s navigation menu. Currently this is created using the FBML application (and some HTML coding), though soon you’ll have to change to iFrame.

Call your tab something simple like Coupons or Discounts to grab attention. Then, to encourage folks to Like your page, only make the coupon or discount available to people after they like you. If you’re unsure how to do this, my friend John Haydon has a great guide on using Facebook HTML as well as hiding offers until people click your Like button.

This got me thinking on the coupons we use in most of our pinup programs and how they may have value beyond a simple redemption. For example:

  • Instead of a coupon like the ones you see here, partners could encourage consumers to visit their Facebook page for the coupon in exchange for a “like.” Unlike an offline coupon or a web page, the retailer gains a new subscriber to their page. Yes, they have to work to keep that new fan, but the connection is a valuable one.
  • If a retailer was feeling generous they could encourage shoppers to visit the cause’s page to get the discount and the nonprofit would get the like. The cause could have a coupon tab with all the discounts from their partners–deals you could only get after you like the page!
  • Getting people from an offline coupon to a Facebook page needn’t be difficult. A QR code takes them there instantly and delivers the coupon! The QR code in my next pinup program would do the trick.

John Haydon told me that he plans to post on Danny’s post as well. I’ll be sure to update this page with a link if he does. John will certainly have some great info on how nonprofits can create and leverage a Facebook discount tab.

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