Facebook: “We’re a technology company, we’re not a web site.”

Posted on Sep 22 in Social by Sean P. Dillon

This morning, Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg shared the company’s view of advertising and the role they play.  Some of the questions were centered around Pages.  One audience member asked, “How do big brands connect with their fans on Facebook, without being overly promotional?”  Sheryl’s response was, “They do it around authentic news and authentic things or authentic offers that people want to see; ads that they’re interested in.”  Keep this in mind as you build a fan page for your Page on Facebook.

One of my favorite parts of this clip is Facebook’s view of itself as a company.  Sandberg remarked, “Our business model and our view of ourselves is that we’re a technology company, we’re not a web site.”  I find it interesting that they see things one way, while many of their actual users consider Facebook to be just a web site.

Being about as prolific as Google, Facebook is here to stay, having reached 300 million members and reporting a new cashflow-positive status early this week.

Measuring ROI For Social Media

Posted on Sep 17 in Social by Sean P. Dillon

Just about every day, a new potential client calls or emails
asking how quickly we can build followers for them on Twitter or when they can
expect sales from their social media efforts. Most are not immediately impressed when I tell them it will
generally take between six and twelve months to see results, as long as things
are done correctly from the beginning and tracked properly.

I thought it would be helpful to refer to Oliver Blanchard’s
Basics of Social Media ROI to shed
some light on what goes into making social media work. Not only do I love the format of the
presentation, but also it explains perfectly what a brand should consider
before moving forward on an investment into social media. Just like anything else you invest in,
a return should be expected within a reasonable period of time. Here’s a closer look at how ROI should
be viewed with regard to social media: