The Science of Facebook Marketing

Yesterday, Dan Zarrella, a social media scientist at Hubspot, hosted a webinar on Facebook marketing. Despite some technical difficulties at the beginning, Zarrella seemed to cover the ins and outs of reaching and targeting an audience on the most popular social networking site, Facebook.

His presentation came complete with "tweetable" takeaways and unforgettable advice about profiles vs. pages. If you've been practicing Facebook marketing for years and using it in your personal life, you pretty much could have caught on to much of what he presented. However for those of us who are always interested in learning more and may not consider ourselves experts, there was some key takeaways from his presentation.

By age:
1. To reach a younger audience, focus on the social aspect of Facebook.
2. To reach an older audience, focus on targeting interests, hobbies and likes.

By gender:
1. Women describe themselves more fully on Facebook than men.
2. Women tend to have more wall posts than men.
3. More women are in relationships on Facebook than men. (More men are listed as single than women)

By medium:
1. Twitter is for marketing/journalist geeks (like us) and is quick (140 characters or less)
2. Video sharing is more effective on Facebook

By linguistics:
1. The most shared content is "sex" (surprising?) More importantly, the second most is positive
2. The least shared content is negative
*People want to share positive content, not negative.

Bottom line is that Facebook is mainstream, so think mainstream when using it as a marketing tool. Twitter is not mainstream and LinkedIn is professional. Most likely a large portion of your target audience is on Facebook if they use the Internet. As always, keep your message simple, but interesting, and know your audience.

Who's in your network?

So we all know about social networking and the value of connecting with important people online. This is great, but in reality, nothing can really replace the one-on-one interaction of real networking. Social networking sites can only aid in the connections, but it's not the same as meeting someone in person.

Recently, a very respected Tweeter, Valerie Simon, posted a blog about how she's networking for the T3PR conference this week. She's talks about how she's researching what attendees are saying and how social networking is helping her prepare and will help her keep in touch with the people she meets. (more can be read here: Integrating Social and Real-Life Networking)

The point of my blog is to expand on Valerie's advice by adding how students and recent graduates can find useful networking opportunities and how social media can help them find valuable and useful connections.

Where can you find opportunities?
There are many discussions available on Twitter weekly that act as a catalyst to connecting mentors with mentees. For instance, during the first HAPPO discussion, I connected with several recruiting managers and senior vice presidents at prominent PR agencies. From there, I set up phone informational interviews, which allowed me to create a more personable relationship with the people I met. Participating in discussions like PR 2.0 Chat, PRStudChat and HAPPO are the easiest way to make connections and learn what real PR professionals are practicing and discussing.

As a recent graduate from Penn State, I got a one-year free with the Penn State Alumni Association. There are chapters across the nation that hold networking events weekly, monthly and annually. These are great opportunities to meet people at a variety of companies. Plus, since they are from the same Alma Mater, they will be more than willing to do whatever they can to help you.

In addition, there are several more formal clubs such as PRSSA, PRSA and the Social Media Club that offer opportunities to meet PR professionals. In addition, there are an endless number of conferences and workshops offered through PRSSA and PRSA that Valerie's advice can directly help with. Research speakers and attendees, connect with them on social media and meet them at the conference to build long-lasting relationships.

Location, location, location.

Many companies are still very unsure of how to effectively use social media to target their audience. With the constantly changing viral world, it's important to not lose sight of your company's objectives and goals. Every social media site cannot be used to effectively reach your audience unless your audience is literally everyone. It's all about location.

From blogging to YouTube, there are many ways to communicate with your consumers. The key is to find where your consumers already are. Social media is truly a way to enhance the two-way communication, but you need to find the right location before you join the discussion.

So when I talk about "joining the discussion" I mean just that. Every social media site out there has a different discussion about different industries. Think of what your company has to offer and make that the topic of your discussion. But also listen to your consumers to and reflect upon what they want. Think about a discussion with your friends. You may talk some, but you spend a lot of time listening, too.

Just remember, it's about the location. Find the consumers and find the discussion. Join the discussion on the same level as the consumers. Give advice, but take it, too.