Finding new ways to use Facebook

Target recently ran a two-week campaign on Facebook called “Bullseye Gives.” The premise? The mammoth retailer offered a choice of ten charities, from breast cancer research to the Red Cross. People voted for their favorites.

The prize? Target will split $3 million among the charities based on the percentage of votes they received.

It’s a great example of viral marketing for both Target and the charities. People posted their votes on their Facebook profiles, encouraging others to participate — and getting more people to join Target’s fan base. Some of the charities posted links on their website homepages, too. In addition, Target will help to connect voters with volunteer opportunities in their local communities. After two weeks, more than 290,000 people had voted!

So Target not only looks hip and philanthropic, but through a creative use of social media, it is strengthening its online community while building its brand.

Social networking vs. Social marketing

People, please. You are breaking my heart.

I spend hours on Facebook. Hours. I do it so I can reconnect with people I purposely lost touch with years ago. I do it so I can poke Scott Bille and not get sued. I do it so I can see pictures of people from my past.

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The Whopper Sacrifice

Did you hear about Burger King’s recent “Whopper Sacrifice” Facebook promotion? The promotion attempted to get Facebook users to “sacrifice” ten friends in exchange for a coupon for a free Whopper.

Facebook didn’t like the promotion and Burger King had to take it down after one week, but only after 234,000 friendships had ended.

Here’s what happened. Burger King launched the “Whopper Sacrifice” micro-site, where Facebook users could install the Whopper Sacrifice Application. The application allowed you to delete 10 friends in exchange for a coupon for a free Whopper. According to statistics, over 89,000 Facebook members added the application. To add an interesting twist, the friend’s profile photo was set on fire through animation once you chose to delete him or her.

Are we seeing a brand-new way to use Facebook? Will others try similar stunts?

Twestivals...social networking for charity.

What happens when civic-minded social networkers decide to rally together and use technology to raise money for charity? A Twestival!

In September 2008, a group of Twitterers based in London decided to organize an event at which the local Twitter community could socialize in person. During the event, they also solicited donations to charity. The bulk of the event was organized in under two weeks, via Twitter.

And so began Twestivals. Stories started appearing of local Twitter communities coming together and taking similar action for charitable organizations. And in February 2009, 200+ cities participated in an international Twestival to raise money for a good cause: water.

Read more about how Twitter and Twestivals are making a local impact on a global scale.

Brands and Twitter

By now, you have probably heard people talking about Twitter. Reporters are Twittering during the commercials breaks on CNN and Fox News. Senators were Twittering during President Obama’s recent address. It seems like every day, someone else is joining Twitter.

But what the heck is Twitter? And how can advertisers use it effectively?

Twitter is part social network, part blog. It allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters.

Mashable, a blog about social media, has posted its review of 40 of the best brands that are using Twitter. Mashable also has thoughts on why major brands do belong on Twitter. So read on and decide if you (or your employer) should be on Twitter.

Blogs and the mainstream media

Blog content aggregator and search site Technorati will soon release its Technorati Attention Index, which measures the incidence of blogs linking to mainstream media sites during the last 30 days. Traditional news sources such as The New York Times, CNN and the BBC are leaders, most likely indicating the high influence of politics and the economy, versus, as examples, entertainment and technology reporting. Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook

In the last couple of years, Facebook has gone from a college photo-sharing site to a business-networking platform for self-promotion, advertising and multimedia interaction.

Official numbers from Facebook indicate that they have 222 million users and are growing at the astounding rate of about five million new users a week. The surprise here isn’t their growth rate, but that baby boomers are the fastest growing demographic for the site. Read the rest of this entry »