Nate Elliot,
Forrester analyst in the social media track, published a report with the
headline and subhead, “Why Facebook Is Failing Marketers: The Leading Social
Network Has Abandoned Social Marketing.”
His position is that
Facebook has devolved into a “push” media company and thus abandoned its early
claims to be a new kind of “social media marketer.” Essentially, Nate says that
the smart advertiser money is leaving Facebook. The report synthesizes
interviews with 395 US, Canadian and UK business executives.
In short, Nate’s
argument doesn’t hold water. He may be hearing some cooling of enthusiasm from
marketers in favor of spreading their investments across digital and social.
But the headline prematurely signals the demise of Facebook, which remains a
strong platform for many brands.
What the study really says
POINT 1: Two
charts make it clear that 395 business executives are unsure of the measured
value of all digital and social media from Facebook to LinkedIn to even banner
advertising. When asked of all the options out there whether they were very
dissatisfied to very satisfied, all responses averaged between 3.54 to 3.84.
All of the choices are in the middle. This is hardly the wholesale critique of
Facebook that Nate makes it out to be. This
simply restates what we all know – industry-standard measurement isn’t there
yet.
POINT 2:
Facebook can be hard to work with. If you are not spending significantly in
annual ad spend and if you have not cultivated a good relationship with a
Facebook “rep”, brands have a hard time getting the attention of those at
Facebook capable of doing interesting things.
They have a small staff (4600+) compared with Google’s 45,000. They
simply cannot service marketers (clients) as brands would like. This sometimes
breeds “dissatisfaction.
Connecting and activating fans with affinity for the
brand
POINT 3:
Facebook isn’t for every brand. It certainly isn’t the only play in social
media for most brands. Still it remains a very valuable platform for many as it
allows brands to establish addressable relationships with customers and people
who have an affinity for a brand. Many brands have not had an efficient way to
connect directly with customers. The relationships are held by retailers, brokers
or some other sales channel. Facebook can help change that.
Helping small business have an “addressable” relationship
with their customers and prospects
POINT 4:
Facebook can work well for small to medium business. That means it can become a
valuable platform for brands who maintain a sales channel or agent-based model.
Brands can help their agents master digital and social media, including
Facebook, to build their business.
Continuous innovation and better targeting (including
mobile)
POINT 5:
Facebook continues to innovate and invent new advertising opportunities. Some
feel more “push” than “pull.” We should expect that they will continue to
release improvements on targeting. We should not judge yesterday’s ad choices
too harshly as more is on the way.
Look-a-likes, email list targeting, friends-of-fans are all strong
innovations. And Facebook has made great improvements in their mobile ad
solution such that only last week they announced, “the company noted that
mobile ads accounted for 49 percent of its advertising revenue, up from 41
percent in the second quarter”
POINT 6: At
the same time, they are operationalizing their ad sales operation to make it
more efficient. This makes them feel like a traditional media company where
every question is met with a stock ad sales answer. All one has to do is work
in China with Sina Weibo and experience their exuberant “let’s try stuff”
approach to advertisers to see how institutionalized Facebook is becoming. If you want more bespoke solutions, brands
must invest money on the platform. That’s what many major brands have done.
The “smart money” isn’t leaving Facebook
Point 7:
Brands continue to invest in Facebook believing in the value while also
spending in other platforms. Big FMCG’s have been operationalizing their use of
the platform and the way they measure value. Facebook provides a strong global
platform for many of these brands. It helps the global center at a FMCG
stimulate change by having a world’s worth of their brand marketers mastering a
single platform.
As reported in the NY Times, Q3 financials for
Facebook stated that the marketplace of brands continues investing in the platform,
“The company’s revenue rose 60 percent, to $2.02 billion, compared with last
year’s third quarter. Most of that, about $1.8 billion, came from advertising”
Of course, other
platforms matter as much or more. For B2B, LinkedIn can be a tremendous platform.
Twitter is hungrily releasing new features that appeal to advertisers.
Pinterest will have formal ad offerings any day.
No brand should put all of
their eggs in one basket yet some of those eggs belong on Facebook.
