ads are for likers

Several months ago facebook yet again changed their format such that we are no longer fans but rather "likers" of something. As I talk with folks about facebook this seems to guarantee some smirks and a chuckle or two about the term. The fact that they have been able to get away with this kind of absurd language shows just how ingrained facebook has become.

Utilization of facebook is certainly a challenge and I would respond to Stephanie's suggestion that we need to decide what our goal is as a crucial step but one that is already made for us - it must be to keep traffic within the facebook app. Once you have mastered getting attention, driving traffic within the app to your page or cause, then you can begin to utilize that page to create what you are looking for in terms of action. There is nothing that you can do on your own site that you can't do on your page so why work harder than you need to in order to achieve your goal? Keeping folks within facebook through the ad keeps them local and comfortable with what you are attempting to accomplish while allowing you to leverage their activity to their friends who may not have seen or been included in your ad segment.

As an example, consider a simple, direct goal of raising $1,000 for scholarship this week. You create a case for support that is essentially a text (ask a student for help with this - you will be amazed at both the language that they use and how they are able to make the message work) find a simple image that supports that case - branding is a challenge here - can you put your logo onto the image that supports the case? Keep in mind that loyalty is not going to raise the $1k in this format and from this audience so a big picture of your logo is simply filling space, not motivating action.

If you link that ad to your giving form, you have not maximized your impact nor have you been able to share more details and expand that case for support. If you link it to your page, you can provide a full multimedia look at what you are selling, clearly share the giving link, including adding an application that lets folks who find this motivating share with their friends and that is where you can really grow this in a manner that is totally different from your own site - your donors become your advocates and sales team rather than simply supporters.

In my next post I am going to talk a bit about what I learned in Denver, about pigs, facebook and student engagement; how you can get hundreds of students to follow you before they ever take a class on campus.