A response to Advertising Age’s article
You have logged into your daily check of your Facebook account and you are notified right away by the nice little red flag at the bottom of the web page, 8 new message. And of course, as any person would be, you are excited that so many people would want to contact you, popularity in its best form. With this excitement in hand, you click on that little red flag only to find out that, no, eight people don’t want to contact you but rather, six, seven, maybe eight different companies want you to check out their new application or fan page or advertisement. And as quickly as that excitement bubble inflated, it is popped by the advertiser’s spam needle.
This is something that every Facebook user encounters more times than not. But of course as advertisers or business people we want to get the word out about our business! So the question everyone seems to be asking is; “How can I get those on Facebook, MySpace and other social media to check out my product without irritating them?”
This however, doesn’t seem to be answered quite as easily. Facebook itself has some suggestions as to solving this puzzle. One is using ‘Facebook Connect’. This allows you, the entrepreneur, to let those who are already users on your webpage or blog and also users of Facebook to link the two accounts together.
So let’s say you are a car dealership, and Samantha Smith is a fan of yours, she enjoys the services you have provided for her car and the friendly disposition of those employed there and thinks,
“Hey, I bet my friend Henry Jones would also be a fan of them, especially since he’s been having all those car troubles.”
Then in one simple click, Samantha has suggested your dealership to Henry. To check it out how to do this, follow this link: http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Linking_Accounts_and_Finding_Friends
Now let’s say you have two fans, Henry and Samantha and to reward these fans for be well, being awesome, you want to give them a coupon or special on the next car wash or tune up. Because they are fans of your Facebook page and Website, they have supplied you with their cell phone number and approved the ability to receive txt messages to their phone. So send them a txt! Not just any txt though, one that would invite them to check out your website along with a special code that would provide them with a coupon to print out and bring in to get that new car smell back in their car after they purchase an oil change or new car mats.
