Until you have squeezed significant value from Facebook, forget all the other social marketing channels.

By Mark Helfen

Social media marketing is all Facebook. Forget the others.

Or so says Justin Kistner, speaker at the next SVForum MarketingSIG meeting, October 10 at our regular place, EMC. His topic will be Feeding the Beast - Taking Advantage of Facebook's New Marketing Opportunities.

Kistner is Director of Social Products at Webtrends, and was a key player in developing their Facebook Analytics products. He will be joined by Hope Frank, Webtrends Chief Marketing Officer.  Webtrends has a range of marketing and analysis products, including a free version that can be used by small startups he describes as the "Swiss army knife" or social marketing tools.

Kistner has been around the internet marketing world for a while, starting out as a blogger attempting to get noticed, eventually helping other companies with the same problem, then on to Search Engine Optimization. When Facebook first was available, he "hated" it, and compared it to the "internet on training wheels."



But starting in 2008, there was a "severe" shift. Facebook became the dominant social media site.

"There is a much wider gap" between Facebook and other social sites, than between Google and other search engines, said Kistner.

"Until you have squeezed significant value from Facebook, forget all the other channels." This thinking would be "incredible offensive" and contrary to other social marketing experts, but Kistner says he has the numbers to back up his opinion.

Just to show that the MarketingSIG plays no favorites, last month's speaker claimed the listening was the most important marketing activity on social media, a statement that I don't think Kistner would agree with.

The tactics have also changed. In the search engine world, the idea of organic search optimization - building links and lots of content, is no longer the best choice. The most effective strategy is now "performance marketing" - paid advertising, the design of landing pages, and analytics to see what works.

Social media marketing with Facebook is following the same path.

How can you get your wall posts noticed in the Facebook world? He has advice on that also, noting that not all posts get to everyone. Facebook has a "suppression" algorithm, attempting to only show you posts that you might be interested in. By increasing "engagement," your wall posts can get higher in this ranking to get a broader distribution.

Kistner will also discuss the recent changes to Facebook. He believes that the news ticker, just implemented, will be a new channel that your marketing can use.

You don't need to be major player or lots of money to use these strategies. Just start with the right plan, and you (or at least your business) can become famous on Facebook.

PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE for Feeding the Beast - Taking Advantage of Facebook's New Marketing Opportunities at our Meetup page:

=============


Mark Helfen is a freelance writer, journalist, and marketing consultant.

He can be reached at: mhelfen@wordpixel.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markhelfen
Facebook: facebook.com/mark.helfen
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mark_helfen

=============