Facebook from novelty to necessity

How would you like to advertise your product or service in a place where people spend a lot of time and, better yet, don't mind being pitched? That's what makes Facebook a necessary marketing platform for businesses today. That, and the fact practically everyone is on it.

Mike Haines, Facebook's Atlanta-based central region vice president, brought that message directly to the American Marketing Association's Tampa Bay chapter April 27. A record 300 AMA members attended an evening seminar at the Mainsail Conference Center in Tampa.

Previously an executive with Microsoft's MSN Online Services Group, Haines says the biggest difference between Facebook and other once-popular Internet services is that members use their true identities, rather than anonymous user names. They also indicate their preferences by way of more than 200 specific criteria, which in turn can be used by Facebook to direct ads.

More than 400 million people are on Facebook, including 125 million active users in the United States — and 900,000 in Tampa Bay — creating a huge audience for businesses of all types and sizes, Haines says. As those numbers continue to grow, the free service (which also sells ads) is becoming almost indispensable as a marketing tool.

“There is a huge audience there that you need to connect and engage with,” Haines tells Coffee Talk. “It's a lot easier ultimately to engage with consumers where they are spending time than it is to try to pull them into an environment with all your other advertising efforts.”

Furthermore, he says Facebook “fans” of a particular company can offer a higher form of word-of-mouth marketing among their “friends,” providing a built-in trust factor and creating the world's largest consumer panel. “You have the ability to turn customers into marketers on your behalf,” he says.

Other panelists of the AMA Tampa Bay seminar offered their own advice on the best ways of using Facebook. The Tampa Bay Rays, who now have 114,000 Facebook fans, offer “insider” information on upcoming baseball games and respond directly to comments.

Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, which gets 8,000 monthly visitors to its Web site by way of Facebook, is able to establish relations with users who might become patients even though they don't want to be, says Peter Taylor, director of marketing.

“You have to get your hands dirty,” Taylor says. “The audience is forgiving as long as you are authentic.”

Douglas Sparks, VP of operations at Offshore Sailing School in Fort Myers, says 300 users have become fans since launching its Facebook page last August. He says the school uses the page as a touch point for prospective students, rather than for direct sales.

“Whatever you do, be totally committed to it,” Sparks advises. That means keeping pages updated so credibility doesn't slip, he says.