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are fan pages/public profiles the new hot commodity?

Domain names (good ones, specifically) are running out. Unless you want to exceed the magic 5 or 6 character rule, choices are limited and resulting in somewhat oddly named sites such as snurl.com or uladoo.com. These names work fine for new start ups, but what about existing brands wishing to add their presence to the internet? Are they forced to adopt some cryptic, vaguely-related URL?

Enter: Facebook Fan Pages/Public Profiles. I've been thinking, writing and speaking about Public Profiles a lot lately. I feel that with Facebook's continued exponential growth, Public Profiles will only become a more dominant brand outlet. Additionally, with the shortage of search-friendly URL's entering crisis status, and domain prices shooting through the roof, utilization of Facebook's Public Profiles feature only makes sense. We've seen brands like Coca-Cola quietly assume control of fan-initiated pages, with some money almost undoubtedly changing hands in the process.

Now, lets take it one step beyond simply acquiring branded pages. What about more generic pages, such as Sleep or Cuddling? With each page totaling nearly 300,000 fans at the time of writing (and growing rapidly), these seemingly pointless pages offer a huge audience with a common interest.



Now, imagine Serta Mattress Co. quietly acquiring the "Sleep" page and using it as an extension of their branding efforts. Instantly, Serta would have an audience of 300,000 people all interested in what they are trying to sell--a good night's sleep. Same goes for "Cuddling". Imagine if any number of companies acquired this page. A few off the top of my head that could forseeably succesfully leverage the page to their advantage may be Cosmopolitan magazine, Trojan condoms (since we all know what cuddling inevitably leads to), or even a breath mint company like Certs.

I'm figuring that some are asking how having a page without the company name on it benefits the company in any form. As mentioned, it instantly gives the company a large targeted audience, instantly. People that like sleep are probably interested in tips on how to achieve the most restful night possible. Why not use a fan page as an outlet for tips on sleeping comfortably? Why not import the Serta corporate blog?

Keep fans updated with new information in mattress technology, or even post a status update reminding fans to flip their mattress once a month. Subtly insert the Serta name or logo here and there, and you have an enourmous as well as low-effort branding campaign. Serta could potentially become synonmous with a good night's sleep among 300,000+ people. The same could go for any number of seemingly generic and glib Public Profiles.

With Facebook being as large as it is, and Public Profiles being indexable for all major search engines, the potential for search traffic is also staggering. Imagine typing in "good night's sleep" and having the "Sleep" Public Profile appear in the top ten results, with all kinds of useful information, tips and have it attached to the Serta brand. Most brands pay thousands upon thousands to SEO analysts for this kind of exposure and ranking. Given Facebook's size and continued growth, its not unrealistic to think that a Public Profile could potentially make the top 5 Google results.

What this boils down to is a chance for huge and relatively inexpensive brand exposure to companies who may be struggling to actively engage customers. Print and television adverstising is in a sharp decline, in terms of effectiveness and relevance. Brands must explore new and diverse outlets to establish their image, and Public Profiles is nearly certain to be one of the biggest outlets in years to come.

Establishing Brand Presence with Facebook

I recently gave a presentation at the 3rd Grand Rapids Social Media Lunch. I wrote a recap of the presentation for the GRSML blog.

Given the direction Public Profiles have been heading through the past few updates, it is safe to say that Facebook Groups are dead. The lack of updates in functionality leads me to believe that Groups will either no longer be supported or may be relegated to “maintenance mode”—a concept akin to life-support in the online world.

Check out the complete post here. Check out the accompanying slideshow here.

are you a one trick social media pony?

I am going to pose a question to all the social-media-marketers and social-media-experts: if social-media dried up, and all the sites went belly-up today, would you be able to get a job tomorrow? I have a feeling that many of the self-titled social media experts out there would not be able to continue in a marketing career beyond our current social boom.

There are two categories I like to assign social- media folks to. There are marketing professionals who utilize the tools social media provides, and there are one trick ponies, who don't exist outside the world of social media.

The folks in the second category may be able to get you on the front page of Reddit or Digg. They may have a huge IM army and multiple accounts and be able to leverage the various SM sites. However, do they understand marketing beyond online exposure? Could The Expert write a press release and effectively distribute it? Could The Expert write an effective, multi-faceted marketing strategy including outlets other than SM?

Here is what I am getting at: I firmly believe social media to be an effective and extremely relevant tool for marketers in today's economy. Entry barriers are relatively low, and it is relatively cost effective versus more traditional advertising. With the closing of established news outlets across the country, I believe social media will only continue to grow and evolve for the foreseeable future.

Given the pace social media is evolving, its hard to say exactly how long into the future. I would like to remind readers at this point about the dotcom bust of the early millennium. Remember all those startups with no business model that were not profitible but somehow were still trading at $60 a share? It seemed to good to last, but the money and investors poured in. It certainly proved to be too good to be sustainable.

How is the social media boom any different than the millennial dotcom boom?

Twitter, currently the fastest growing social service, has yet to unveil a concrete business model or make any money other than a few bucks for advertising in Japan. What makes us so sure that these companies will find a way to become sustainable and profitable? In the end, I don't think anyone can be certain about the longevity of social media.

If Digg dried up tomorrow, what would you do?

Would you be out of a job, or would you be agile enough to adapt to the changes? Are you a multi-faceted marketing expert, or do you just have a lot of solid accounts on social media sites?

Social media is evolving and growing at a staggering pace. Will The Expert--the one-trick-pony--be able to evolve and grow with it?

new twitter directory goes beyond who's got the most followers

Upon checking my email this morning, I noticed I had just received a press release from loadedweb.com touting their newest addition--a local Twitter directory. While the idea of a local Twitter directory is nothing new, loadedweb's seems to offer the most value thus far.


Going beyond simply ranking who has the most active account, or the most followers, loadedweb aggregates a variety of statistics from a specific local region and provides a bit of a cultural thermometer which allows users to see what the regionally-hot buzzwords are. Included in the statistics are hashtags, URL's, and @users.



For a long time I've thought the trend in social media would be to localize it a bit, and I feel that loadedweb's new directory just confirms my prediction.

I see huge possibilities for local businesses interested in branding and reputation monitoring. There is no doubt that having a finger on the local cultural pulse would help any business better target and meet the needs of its customer base.