Originally a social-networking site that started in a Harvard dorm room, Facebook’s popularity spread throughout universities and colleges throughout North America. Whereas it was originally available only to college students, Facebook became so popular that it eventually allowed non-college students to join. As of writing this blog post, there are approximately 400 million people in the world that have a Facebook account – and the numbers keep growing (225 million of those 400 million are from last year alone). The astounding, nay, meteoric rise of Facebook has interesting implications for internet marketers.
An increasing amount of people now peruse the internet based either on their friend’s recommendations or their friends recent activities, ushering in a new way of social media optimization called “friend-casting”. The principles behind friend-casting are simple and to explain the process I will use a recent and personal example.
I was on facebook perhaps two weeks ago when a friend whom I know and trust recommended checking out a website with the tagline “putting this in the nursery” (she’s having a baby soon). It was a link to a website that sold wall stickers – adorable ones for children, might I add – and since I have a family member who recently announced that she’s pregnant (good thing they don’t live by each other or I’d have to question the drinking water) and I had a flash of inspiration. Voila! I have found the perfect gift for the inevitable baby shower! This website made a sale (I bought ’Woodland Animals’ wall stickers, in case you were wondering) because my friend posted a link on facebook.
Friend + Link + Facebook = Social Media Optimization (via “friend-casting”)
Think of your own facebook experiences. How often have you clicked on links your friends recommended? How many times have you posted a link, photo, or a video and had someone “like” it, let alone comment on it? How frequently have you commented or “liked” something one of your friends posted? This is friend-casting, and it’s powerful. Friend-casting is the e-version equivalent of “word of mouth” advertising! So important is friend-casting on Facebook that it is considered the premier way to achieve great social media optimization.
Consider this: According to web measurement firm Compete Inc., for the first time ever Facebook directs more traffic to major websites (on caliber with yahoo and msn) than Google. More traffic than Google! I’ll let that sink in…and for other types of websites, Facebook is among the top sources for directing traffic, with Google still being in the lead. Google is still king – no question about it – but ignore Facebook at your own peril. In the same vein, Search Engine Optimization is definitely still important, but Social Media Optimization is too effective to disregard.
Furthermore, a large portion of a person’s web session is dedicated to their destination, with only a small amount of time actually dedicated to the search (statistically speaking – which may or may not be true for you). The amount of time people spend on Facebook has grown too, which effectively means more people are spending more time on the internet with Facebook as their destination.
From an internet marketing point of view, the immediate implications for this development is to start advertising on Facebook in order to reach a wider demographic and drive traffic to your business. For smaller-scale enterprises, this could mean simply sharing links in your status updates or posting the occasional note. It can also mean utilizing a mix of features, such as advertising on facebook, starting a group or a fanpage (ahem…have you joined ours yet?), linking your notes to your blog, linking your twitter and facebook accounts, updating your status with information relevant to your business, and the list goes on!
Remember my friend that told me about the wall stickers I mentioned a few paragraphs above? Well, she is woefully ignorant about affiliate marketing – but you’re not! To toe the FTC line you would have to mention you are an affiliate near the link, but you can absolutely tout your affiliate website or product on facebook via status updates, a note, etc. Your friends will see it on their Facebook feed and by the sheer virtue of being friends on facebook your suggestions will resonate with them and be influential, which could translate into increased traffic and sales!
Social Media Optimization, primarily through Facebook, is one of the new internet marketing 2.0 strategies (“interwebz” marketing if you REALLY want to be 2.0 about it). It’s a constantly evolving field, but if recent developments are any indication, Social Media Optimization will be a vital component of internet marketing for a long time to come.
