I’m not going to mention just how big Facebook is nowadays…not gonna even go there! It’s no wonder, given this social network’s pull, that most brands are moving towards it at the speed of light. Many are moving so fast, in fact, they’re not even sure where they’re headed. The first thing they think about is…how do I get a lot of FANS?

Well, the first thing they should think about is how does one become a fan. Explaining this to a brand might be difficult, as most marketers will say “because they love us.” Well, brand love just ain’t what it used to be. Users will not gather around a brand just because it is there – well, some will and some brands do have that effect. But let’s look at a more strategic optic – what sort of fans are out there and what mechanics work best to attract them?

In a broad sense, there are four types of fans – the unconscious, the grabber, the seeker and the lover. Each of them has a different motivation and requires a different approach. Let’s look at each of them:

The unconscious – These users see a friend who has become a fan of a page and just click on it. Most of the time they become a fan simply because their friend did. Other times they’ll become fans because the page name looked fun/odd/curious. Regardless, they become fans. But the odds are, you won’t get a peep out of these users – and they won’t come back to the page that often. Getting these users demands two efforts – spreading your page to a database of dense users with many contacts (who are a reference) and/or, sometimes, simply coming up with a fun/odd/curious name for the page itself.

The grabber – The prize winners. They will go for every freebie/campaign you create. They join because they’ve either become aware that the page had a campaign offering something to the fan base or saw on a friend’s wall a reference to that campaign. Anyway, they join in an effort to win a prize. The good thing about these users are that they will follow the page – as long as it keeps on pumping out the freebies/promotions/etc. Getting this user is easy – just create a campaign based on Facebook’s mechanics.

The seeker – These users actively seek pages pertaining to specific interests. Although very subjective, these users can be categorized into a group as not all users ‘actively seek’ pages in Facebook. Seekers look for interesting content because they become active followers, commenting and participating in the discussion. They’re the best type of fan you can get. To gather users such as these, the page has to be very content focused and have a strong update scheme that keeps users coming back for more, which means no dead moments with just weekly updates. Another strategy is cross posting – finding related pages where you can post content from your page to generate curiosity.

The lover – Quite simply the user who goes to a page simply because they love the brand. Not much a page can do to get them – simply having users join so the page shows up on the wall feed – or better, doing a campaign using Facebook ads and taking advantage of segmented user data.

Most users don’t fall into one of these categories specifically – most of us identify with each of these segments at one time or another. To effectively get a user to join a brand page we should devise a strategy that plays on all these levels. But one thing’s for sure – it’s not the number of fans you get that matter, but what you do with them and how they react to your stimulus.

Alvenda Inc., a Minneapolis-based startup, has innovated the e-commerce scenario by creating Banner Based Stores, display advertising materials that pose as a online store for their clients — an innovative and definitely different approach towards e-commerce as it allows a store to be where the consumers are instead of trying to drag them into their website which has to be done by gaining their confidence, getting them to visit you and having a really good product.

So now they’ve decided to go one step forward by developing fully functioning retail stores in Facebook. Facebook already has a currency that is used to buy virtual gifts and is slowly evolving into a semi-Pay Pal system that allows more complex offline shopping to occur – but the fact is that in order for the e-commerce capabilities of Facebook to evolve, companies have to find a way to play with all the capabilities Facebook has to offer at the moment and build up a proper E-Commerce strategy with real added value for the Facebook-using consumer. This has to be done, of course, taking into account the nature of Social Media and the seriousness (or lack of) that it has in the eyes of the consumer.

And in comes a rather recent concept – Social Shopping. Shopping is by nature a social act. Shopping online always had a few issues – the fact that you can’t see the actual product (not solvable) and the fact that you can’t exactly take your friends or family to help you choose. So Alvenda is bringing a solution to this second fact by bringing the shop to where the consumers are and, if they properly use the tools Facebook has, they will enable users to share their shopping or wishlists with other users directly on Facebook.

The sheer potential of the Social Shopping is still far from explored. While brands can look at this with some skepticism, marketers should to be able to design a strategy that, if necessary, can look into a first dwelling in Social Shopping. A very basic and test-oriented dwelling, of course. Like in any new tool, the first approach should be cautious but not too basic.

Let’s see how Alvenda’s approach to Social Shopping works out. We do not expect massive results at first and we know that some cards might be playing against them – not many users consider Facebook as a Shopping Mall and still look at it more as a toy than a serious website. But take this into account – the nature that the Social Network is acquiring goes beyond a profile page and more into the building of an online persona where more users each day invest more time. Not only this, but more brands and companies are building microsites for promotions inside Facebook. So the odds for Alvenda’s are pretty good – let’s see what happens…

Virality is one of those big words used so much nowadays that it’s almost blaze. Clients demand it, marketers sought it, but it doesn’t have an effective study done to show how to obtain it. Of course there is some randomness to it – but it also involves some background and context.

Virality can be obtained via the following formula: Continue reading ‘Virality 101′