Facebook UK traffic up 75% but does it deliver better business results?

Digital research agency comscore has just released data showing Facebook's impressive growth in Europe over the last year. In Feb 09, Facebook had a 4.1% share of internet minutes up from 1.1% in Feb 08. Its share of networking minutes increased from 12.32% to 30.4% over the same period.

The largest audience is in the UK with 22.7 million unique visitors up 75% year on year. Across Europe, it is the number one social networking site in all countries except Germany (ranked 4th), Russia (7th) & Portugal (3rd).

Will Facebook help me get better business results?

Understandably, there is a lot of talk (some might say hype) about using Facebook as a web marketing option. Clearly, any medium that has mass reach and takes a 4% share of internet minutes should be taken seriously as a web marketing option.

However, most companies already have thousands of ways of spending marketing budgets and resources. Unless you have the resources of a Coca Cola you have to make choices and focus your money, time & resources on a limited number of activities designed to help you achieve your strategy and business objectives.

So despite its popularity, using Facebook is not guaranteed to work for your business nor that it will deliver a great marketing ROI. Like all web marketing strategies, it is unlikely you will be successful without joined up web marketing.

e.g. Is your target audience likely to engage with your brand on Facebook? Just because I have bought a Dyson and use Facebook does not automatically mean that I want to engage with Dyson on Facebook. 

Is it more likely to be positive engagement or negative engagement that might damage your brand? How does it fit with your brand thought?

So the challenge is how can you use Facebook to help you achieve your business objectives in a way that recognises why people use Facebook (which is not to receive 'traditional interruption marketing messages'). As ever, without a sound strategy there is little chance of success.

What's new?

My first experience of social media (probably before the name was coined) was at the RAC in 96. We were repositioning the brand. Customer research told us we had some great brand values: we were trusted and expert. However, we were also patronising & unapproachable. For many people we were considered once a year for breakdown membership and we wanted to be more relevant for more of the year. When I developed the new RAC website as part of the brand repositioning I included a forum called Your Voice which was designed to encourage user generated content about motoring related issues. i.e. make us much more approachable and demonstrate the year round benefits of RAC membership

All posts were published if:

• it was motoring related
• they did not contain swear words
• they didn't blatantly promote or criticise a 3rd party brand which might involve me appearing in court
  

The first post we received was from an individual who hated the new corporate identity that had just been launched and the fact that we had removed the royal crown from the RAC logo. My heart told me that the forum was all about engaging customers / prospects and encouraging dialogue (positive or negative). My head told me hardly anyone else at the RAC wanted a website and especially a forum which was 'out of our control' & if the 1st thing I published was a negative criticism of the biggest thing the RAC had done in 20 years, I half expected to be fired. 

I published the post and minutes later I received a 2nd post from someone who said they 'loved the new corporate identity. It was colourful and modern and made the RAC less like old fashioned farts'. Of course, I published this in nanoseconds. 

The lesson for me was if you genuinely have a strong brand and offer a great service than don't be afraid to encourage dialogue. With even the best brands, there will be some negative comments. However, these are likely to be significantly outweighed by positive comments. Having both on the website, showed the RAC had confidence and was big enough to display good and bad comments which reinforced our integrity.

The negative comments may also contain helpful clues to areas in the business that require improvement. Read more in my article Are you getting enough customer complaints? 

Had Facebook been around in 96, it would have made life much easier for me and I could think of a number of strategies that would engage the RAC's  target audience on a regular basis (making us more approachable) and encourage user generated content such as maintenance tips, debates on motoring issues e.g. speed cameras, my favourite drives / rides, my favourite cars etc. 

So, Facebook could help your business, as long as it is part of a joined up web marketing strategy that focusses on initiatives most likely to deliver a good marketing ROI. But without the thinking and strategy it's unlikely to deliver great results and will probably be put in 'another marketing fad that didn't work' box.

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.