Facebook is your life's newspaper, the rest of the web is the wild wild rest.
By being a Facebook user, social media consultant and public page owner, I've confirmed what one CMO recently told me: People use Facebook differently than any web platform or tool. As a 20 year veteran to media and marketing, I haven't seen anything like this since ... early listservs and AOL."
What does that mean? When you logon to Facebook, your mind's been conditioned to believe, "this is a place I can let my security guard take a break, it's a place where everybody knows my (real) name. It's a place where I can get help, give help and share my thoughts and experiences safely. Somehow, we've convinced ourself that we can trust friends of friends and jump into conversations without fear of looking stupid - after all, we are just digi-hanging with our peeps!
On the other hand, we don't behave the same way on a commercial web site, especially one that's a lead-capture machine. On blogs, we comment far less often, and when we do, mostly keep it cerebral. When a blogger asks for comments, few loyal readers chirp in - unlike Facebook where a single question can yield a response-through ratio that exceeds a blog or Twitter by 1000%!
Facebook users are more likely, than the rest of the web world to:
1. Interact with you. This is just as true for public pages as it is personal profiles. Ask a question, get tons of answers. Post something funny, get LOLs or UGGHS.
2. Trust you. When you say you are somewhere, or just did something, even without pics, there's seldom any naysayers. Often, I've talked to people that follow me there, and they quote activities I'm doing from Facebook, like they were reading it out of my diary. This is why the phishing scams on Facebook are so dangerous: We click on links in FB messages much more often than emails or on blogs.
3. Tell you the truth. In Amazon reviews, anonymous blog posts and on commercial web site, what you read isn't necessarily the truth. People use these platforms to say hurtful things, spread gossip or spam. In Facebook world, people are much more transparent, because a lie can poison one's network - often consisting of high school buddies, old work colleagues and current BFFs. That tends to bring out honesty in comments as much as wall postings or notes.
4. Come to your aid. People use Facebook as the new smoke break (which really democratizes work life!). When they do this, they are not in biz or marketing mode, they are in community mode. Ask for a helpful hint, get tons of replies and even sometimes an offer to directly pitch in. On my author page, where I'm working on a new book (Today We Are Rich, March 2011), I've been helped tremendously by my user group: Finding resources, contractors and subjects to participate in mind-circumstance trials.
5. Be funny. People are likely to poke fun at themselves, post goofy pics (not always a good idea) and make sarcastic comments here - all intended to bring a chuckle to any reader. This is why Shit My Dad Says grew so fast here, but Unicef's page lagged. We come here to pass time, be entertained and connect at a personal level.
6. Respond to the brief and pithy. Unlike writing articles or blogging, where expansion of an idea is key, a Facebook post that's less than 2X of a Tweet can get the most comments or likes. Say it in a sentence powerfully, and you'll create a ripple. Write a blog length note about it and people just pass it over - too much info for a social stream stroll.
There are a few reasons that Facebook has succeeded in creating this phenom:
1. It's an RSS reader for the technically challenged and seasoned pros alike. Interact with someone's post once, and it is now part of your main stream until you click the remove button (which is hidden unless you move over it.)
2. The referral effect. For decades, we've been condition to trust advice from friends, and even their friends too. This extends the network of trust, just to the edges of Facebook.
3. Less spam. Unlike Twitter, which is a spammer-marketeers paradise, Facebook feeds don't include much spam. When they do, you can hide them or remove the friends pretty easily. Facebook's been diligent about this too. Recently, I downloaded Text Expander, which has saved me HOURS of not having to retype frequently used phrases or URLs. When I respond to new friend requests recently, using Text Expander to copy my Author Public Page or Web site yields a text-input required pop up and a warning that I'm typing too fast, a pattern recognized as affiliated with practices that "annoy certain Facebook users." Even when trying top copy and paste a URL more than a few times in one session, I get the same popup AND a warning that if I don't "slow down significantly" my account may be suspended. You don't get that vigilence on Twitter or any of the blogging platforms!
In the end, here's what it means to me as an author and business guy: Facebook is the best social media platform for brands to engage with people, so long as the brand plays by the rules and operates 'like a friend.'
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