I Hope There is More to Facebook's Monetization Strategy (continued…)
November 14, 2007 10:13 PM | Written by Yan Shikhvarger
Last week I profiled a very ordinary example of a marketing program on Facebook. This program that did not take any advantages of what Facebook really is. A different story this week... There is a great example of a Microsoft program that fully takes advantage of the social network.
Microsoft's "I'M" program is a contest to get the most users to join a social cause and to use Microsoft instant messenger program. The first organization to 50,000 members would get $50,000 from Microsoft. The organizations are all well-known and include The Red Cross, Sierra Club, The Humane Society, etc...
The Humane Society reached the goal first and got the prize, but Microsoft got exposure for every cause - not just for The Humane Society. Such a marketing program is a perfectly tailored for Facebook because of Facebook's so called "social graph" approach, which is an incredible awareness-generating tool. If one person joins, then all connected friends see this action and the message goes viral. And of course, Facebook wisely surrounded this with videos, message boards, friends networks, etc...
So not only is this a great example of a marketing program, but it also clarifies its offering vs. a pretty much every other "publisher." Facebook and Google are really in a different league by offering communications/marketing opportunities that are tied to the actual purpose of visiting that site AND these sites also have truly massive reach. You don't really visit other sites to for the purpose of seeing ads and that is also why click through rates have been dropping.
Coming back to the original statement of "is there more to Facebook's monetization strategy," the answer is a resounding "yes!" It is in putting together custom communications programs that leverage what Facebook is and what it has.
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1. Sponsored message that appeared right on my profile
2. Click on the sponsored message explains the initiative and the causes
3. The winning organization
4. Resulting community
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