Next on Facebook’s Checklist: Advertisers
Hot off the launch of Facebook for Journalists, Facebook has moved on to a different constituent, this time advertisers.
The company is now hoping to create a better and more lucrative relationship with advertisers via a brand new stand alone community site called “Facebook Studio“. This new channel on Facebook allows advertisers and users to view advertisements by a variety of big-name brands, and interact with them through the traditional Facebook features (i.e. Likes, comments & sharing). Furthermore, it is a legitimate opportunity for advertisers to share, discuss and learn new ideas for innovative campaigns.
Blake Chandlee, head of Facebook’s new Agency Relations team announced; “We need to do a better job of engaging with agencies.” The page is essentially set up to encourage and show the importance of advertising and word of mouth via social media, and aspires to encourage brands to promote via Facebook. Many brands are still skeptical about spending advertising budget on social networking sites, as they are mostly unfamiliar with this revolutionary platform, and prefer investing in more traditional methods of advertising such as TV and Radio. However, many companies overlook the fact that content is easily distributed through social networking sites, for no extra cost. By simply “liking” or ‘sharing” an advertisement, this message is exposed to thousands more, and so continues the domino effect.
The ultimate prize for any agency is when an advertisement becomes “viral” which means they have achieved the ultimate nirvana in social network advertising. An recent example of this was an advertisement for “Smart Water” featuring American actress Jennifer Aniston. The video went viral on YouTube, and was viewed close to 10 million times, heavily aided by a surge of “shares” and “likes” on Facebook and other social networking mediums.
The community site should also help advertisers keep up to date with all the latest products and features of Facebook that are constantly being revamped, and how they can incorporate these features into their advertising campaigns. Through the “Learning Lab” tab on the site, Facebook clearly explain all the different ways that advertisers can utilize Facebook features for maximum advertising effect.
Again, with the mixed feelings about Facebook within many different communities, this is another smart move by the ever-growing company to connect with one of their key constituents, whilst benefitting simultaneously.