Jennifer L. Cherry
Patrick Sullivan

From the Wall Street Journal to WWJ-AM in Detroit, the entire world knows that GM doesn’t think Facebook advertising is worthwhile. And, for GM’s needs, the company’s strategy is correct.

However, it’s important to note that for millions of other small-to mid-sized companies Facebook advertising is a tool that can make a significant impact when properly leveraged.

But how can that be? Facebook ads allow one line of text and a small image. Not exactly compelling stuff. It takes more than that to convince me to spend $20,000+ on a new vehicle. I might, however, be convinced to buy an inexpensive widget that’s a low risk purchase where I have little to lose.

If I’m looking for a new vehicle, I’ll likely seek them out in the research phase of my search. In fact, it’s impossible to avoid them. It’s easier to tune out an ad for a brand I know and ignore the message.

When crafting a Facebook ad, the organization has the ability to hone in on a particular demographic, including age, location and event-specific characteristics such as “wine connoisseur” and a desire to “travel.”

The ad exposes an audience to a brand to which they have no familiarity. The viewer may be attracted to the ad by the catchy one line slogan, eye-popping image, or because their “friend” likes it already and with one simple click, they’ve agreed to receive updates from a new company, or In short, they’ve become a “fan” of the businesses page.

The truth of the matter is that there are two Facebooks waiting for organizations on the social media site. The first Facebook is populated with well-established companies and everyday household brands. These pages have tens of thousands of fans and a buzzing stream of content. If you don’t know who these companies are, you probably don’t have a computer. As a century-old global automaker, GM clearly falls into this category.

Then there’s the other Facebook, comprised of the vast majority of company pages in existence. Many of these pages struggle to break the ceiling of 10,000 (or even fewer) “fans.” Their content stream often stagnates due to a lack of user engagement and new “likes” eventually cease all together. These are the pages that can benefit the most from Facebook advertising.

For unknown and smaller businesses, this control and subsequent exposure enabled by Facebook goes beyond what they could achieve from traditional advertising. The demographics are much narrower allowing businesses to reach their key audiences and minimizing wasted impressions. THERE ARE ACTUAL METRICS, offering the ability to adjust ads to meet the needs of their audience and optimize traffic, while providing the C-Suite an understanding of the consumers the ads are reaching.

When a “new” potential consumer “likes” a Facebook page as a result of the ad, it is then up to its parent organization to provide compelling content to engage them adequately with the brand and convert them into a paying customer. No one sentence and a photo ad can do that. It’s totally unreasonable to think it could convert an individual into a buyer or brand advocate.

As I’ve said GM is a recognizable entity. If you don’t know them, you probably also don’t own a computer. The needs of this global company are very different from the needs of millions of others. People will seek GM out. They know the brand and want to be / or don’t want to be associated with them already. As such, the automaker doesn’t need Facebook to help them and traditional advertising channels still offer a wide breadth of opportunity to share one-way compelling content and hit home the company’s key messages that resonate with those in the automotive market.

So while Facebook ads may not be right for GM, they help millions of brands/organizations get their start and build their visibility without expensive campaigns. Don’t count Facebook ads out just yet.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

“Facebook is ramping up efforts to entice companies… to sell wares on its pages and convert more of its 500 million users into online shoppers,” writes Business Week’s Olga Kharif.

It’s the most direct way yet that Facebook is looking to make shopping a more social experience. Kharif talked to Facebook’s David Fish, who’s running a group at aimed at creating commerce partnerships. Facebook has already met with 20 companies, and aims “to help retailers set up shop on its pages and build tools that let web users interact while buying.”

Facebook wants to create social commerce on the web. Shopping is best when it’s a shared experience. If you’re looking for a new TV, getting validation from a friend is a good thing. If you’re looking for a new outfit, you want to be told it looks good before dropping money on it.

Now, Facebook wants to help retailers spark new purchases through pages driven by “recommendations from friends who ‘like’ to buy.”

“It’s not natural to go to Facebook to shop—yet,” Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research told Business Week. “But it’s not a long step.”

That’s an important distinction. People are already going to Facebook to socialize with friends, and if they see something their friends have “liked” or purchased, they may be more inclined to follow suit. It’s in Facebook’s best interests to keep them on the site, which is why it makes sense to offer the experience directly. It’s also in retailers’ interests to engage people where they’re at, which right now is on Facebook. They can also use that store front as part of their social media strategy to engage customers directly.

Facebook’s Fisch is part of a group “meeting with retailers to help Facebook develop software that lets users solicit advice and product reviews from Facebook friends in real time, even while they’re shopping on other sites,” writes Khalid. That’s good news for retailers because their potential customers can tap into a pool of their friends and make a more informed purchase.

The Forbes article also highlights the company “Payvment,” which writes software “that can turn Facebook pages into storefronts.” There’s value there because people can have the instant gratification of making a purchase if they just got a good response from friends about a product.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

There’s a trend growing among American adults, staying connected with work even when away from it. I’m not talking about checking an email from your computer on a Tuesday night, but pushing back from the Thanksgiving feast and loading up your account during a true holiday.

Mashable cited a new survey from Xobni and Harris interactive that says “59% of employed American adults check their e-mail during holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Of the 59%, more than half (55%) check their work e-mails at least once a day, while about 28% check their e-mails multiple times throughout the day.”

Take in to account that some employees have their work email pushed to a device, and you can safely assume that important work can get done even on a holiday.

They’re checking their work emails for a variety of reasons too. The largest group (42%) are checking email to stay up-to-date, others believe it helps ease their workload and about one in five say that they emails serve as a welcome distraction.

If people are so inclined to check their work emails during a holiday or break, I think it’s safe to say they’re also using the same devices with increased frequency and are looking for new ways for technology to make their lives easier.

Personally, I’ve had work email pushed to my phone and it was of great benefit. I learned about scoops, review opportunities, schedule changes and more. I used the same smartphone to check up on social networking strategy and opportunities to update my coworkers if I saw a problem online that needed fixing.

Are you always connected, checking work emails while on vacation or during a holiday? What are some ways that it helps you?

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

This past weekend when I logged into my Facebook account, I was greeted by a message asking me to change my homepage to www.facebook.com. I wasn’t the only one.

It turns out Facebook is trying to become the first place you go when you open your browser. The only change I’ve made in years was when I switched my browser from www.google.com to www.google.com/ig because I wanted to use the customized Google interface. For as long as I can remember, I’ve gone to Google first.

Now, Facebook is trying to change that, but they’re just the latest in a series of companies who’ve been trying to get you to change your home page. As TechCrunch notes, “Being people’s homepage is good for branding, great for ‘stickiness’ and phenomenal for traffic.”

Facebook hasn’t made an announcement of any kind about the homepage replacement, and it appears to me that Facebook is testing out a variety of message and popup layouts. The message I received is different than the ones posted on TechCrunch and VentureBeat.

I’d presume that Facebook wants you to turn to your friends when you’re looking for information rather than to a search engine. People are already looking to their peers and the social graph they’ve created which is why it’s more important then ever to have a social media strategy for interacting with them.

What’s your homepage? Would you change it to Facebook if you were asked?

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch calls it a formal surrender ceremony, but what you’ve read is true, MySpace and Facebook have partnered.

What’s that mean? You can now log in to MySpace with Facebook. I don’t necessarily see it as a surrender though, I think it’s more analogous to dogs and cats living together.

Facebook has cemented itself as the premier social network, a spot held by MySpace just a couple years ago. It serves as a reminder that the web moves fast and that you have to have a social media strategy for the fast-paced changes. If you’re stuck in the past, there’s less value to be found.

Mashable writes that it’s important for a few more key reasons, “First and most obvious, it’s official acknowledgment on the part of MySpace that Facebook has indeed become top dog in the social networking space, and it’s better to be with them than against them at this point. Second, and more important as MySpace looks to turn itself around, it creates a huge new audience for MySpace’s content and affirms its focus on entertainment.”

The important takeaway for MySpace is that they have a built in entertainment audience and want to utilize the Facebook “Like” system to offer real content. An overview of how they plan on doing that can be found here.

You can see some of the new features of the MySpace/Facebook partnership in the video below and for even more details check out the press release from MySpace.

Mashup your Facebook Likes on Myspace

Myspace | Myspace Video

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne