Facebook - A New Customer Experience

I find it amazing at how broadly used Facebook has become. It started as just this social networking site that you could only join if you were in college with an official college email address, and I only originally got one because everyone else had one. Now it is this global network that virtually everyone seems to be a part of. Companies are taking advantage of this opportunity to market themselves through this virtual world.

First, let’s look at how these companies are utilizing Facebook to gain insights about the consumer market. Companies make pages and Facebook users then become fans of the page. I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure that if you are a fan of a page then that company can then see your profile (which is usually restricted to only your friends or networks). Therefore, any given company can see the profiles of the people who are interested in their company. These people are a good representation of the people shopping at their stores or somehow spending money with this company.

This information can be very valuable to a company if they use it right. They have a lot of information about their consumer market – their likes, dislikes, favorite TV shows, favorite music, interests, basic background information, and more. They can compile all this and find trends and what is common among everyone who has become a fan of the page. They can then use this information to market consumers.

For example, let’s pretend Blockbuster has a fan page. Maybe they look through the profiles of all of their fans and discover that a large number of people have listed Couples Retreat (or another movie in theater that has yet to come out on DVD) as one of their favorite movies. Blockbuster can use this information by advertising Couples Retreat before it comes out on DVD, telling people to come rent it on the day it comes out. They can use posters and other advertising campaigns within the store to draw people in. Once they are inside, there’s a good chance they will rent more than one movie, leading to higher profits for Blockbuster.

Now let’s take a look at how companies are utilizing Facebook to create customer experiences. As mentioned in class, many companies simply copy and paste their website onto a fan page. This is kind of boring and pointless. If I wanted to see what a product was about, I’d go to their website, not search for their Facebook site. When companies do this I never become a fan of their page unless I like their product so much that I do it anyway. Other than that, I like to look at more interactive pages. I like when companies will have updates on their pages, and fans will comment on new uses for the product or something similar.

If a company can be successful at this, they can draw in a lot of potential customers. I’m pretty sure fan pages can have games on their pages, so maybe if one person really likes a product and becomes a fan, and then thinks what’s on the fan page is really cool, they’ll tell their friends. Because word of mouth is a very useful tool, these people will trust their friend’s advice and take a look at the page. Hopefully they will find it really cool and fun too. Even if they didn’t have an interest in the product before, they may now consider buying it.

Facebook really is a useful site for companies. To be honest, I mostly just use it for the pictures – I love to take pictures so I can share all those by tagging my friends and see others’ pictures of me when they tag me. I never search for companies to become a fan. So, if a company is successful in finding me and gauging enough interest that I become a fan, I would definitely consider that a job well done.