It took a day to launch your Facebook page? C'mon, Adam! (Kidding.)
It's also very good to be on Twitter. Twitter has the potential to drive traffic, a la Jason Calacanis. (It probably won't drive traffic for most folks, however.) If your goal is to drive traffic, Facebook may not be for you. But it never hurts to have one.
One word of advice: If you're going to have a Facebook page, you must interact with your fans!
Adam Ostrow
· 1 year ago
Yea, the same community management rules still apply I think ... being active, responding to users, introducing new and fun stuff, etc.
gege
· 1 year ago
Your Facebook page is not working. they are not reliable
Jeff Scott
· 1 year ago
Not to mention that there's nothing to stop someone from starting a "Verizon Sucks" page / group and getting more members. That would be a PR boo-boo.
Jeremy
· 1 year ago
someone could do that anyway, regardless of whether you do this or not.
i would say these types of social networking endeavours present a certain transparency to a company that could possibly be good.
Stuart Smith
· 1 year ago
I think this is probably part of a trend set to continue. So called Web 2.0 presences are difficult for traditional company strutures. They blur the line between the social and professional. It's too early to say if that is a good or bad thing. Also and this is probably an important factor the technology is changing so fast that by the time someone has tried to emulate the latest web trend on their intranet or company web presence, the rest of the world will have moved on!
jamie tedford
· 1 year ago
Once everyone plays nice and facebook adopts google's friend connect and open ID becomes a reality, users will be untethered from their networks- private and public. At that point, movement between private brand communities and public social nets will be fluid and painless. As a provider, we've split our bet on our white label soc net software (brand nets) and services to help brands create and manage pages, profile and application for their fans in facebook, et al. Progressive brands are doing the same, realizing it's not an either/or question.
Rich
· 1 year ago
The more effective strategy is to engage in the conversations (even the negative ones)in all places -- brand community, Facebook ,elsewhere. One of the things we're doing at Ripple6 is to give marketers and publishers the ability to do that -- syndicate their blog/group/community to all of the places that their target audience spends time, and to let that cumulative conversation ripple through personal networks.
Barry Hurd
· 1 year ago
I spent about eight years working at the GTE/Verizon/Idearc beast... and think that all the people who truly get the online space left the company for better things a long time ago.
The Idearc portion of the company (the interactive/online side) has been having severe problems since 2005-06. Stock has gone from $38 to $4. As of June 2nd, they even appointed a new CEO - Scott W. Klein.
There are already multiple "Verizon Sucks" types of sites on the net. Facebook having one or more is just another sign of dwindling times.
As a phone and directory company, Verizon/Idearc is not prepared to handle the high-speed change and evolution of media. Unfortunately- they have done the only thing they can do, jump on Facebook and hope the lifeboat keeps them afloat.
NotThisGod
· 1 year ago
Social networking sites are just fads. It doesn't matter how much money Verizon has. That is why the most popular sites, facebook and myspace, were made by college kids, while companies like Microsoft have failed to ever make a comparable social networking site.
Ben
· 1 year ago
I disagree with "You’re Limited to Facebook’s Feature Set". If you have a need that's not being addressed by Facebook, you can develop a custom application to fit that need and plunk it down on your Facebook Page. This might cost you some money, but it will be a lot less than designing and populating a whole social network just for that feature.
Adam Ostrow
· 1 year ago
I was thinking about that too, but you're still limited to what Facebook will allow you to do with applications.
Temi
· 1 year ago
I'm a Facebook developer and even Facebook applications have limits to how many emails you can send in a day, how many notifications you can send, and spammy applications could get reported to Facebook & shut down.
Deon Gordon
· 1 year ago
While relying solely on Facebook for their Web 2.0 purposes is highly lazy, it does signal a long overdue departure from their previous methods and strategies.
Verizon just doesn't have the brand appeal that would engage AND convince subscribers to add another online social community to his or her already bloated list.
There are very few companies that I can think of, off the top of my head, that command this kind of devotion and attention: Apple is definitely one of them.
That said, Verizon can take this as a prime opportunity to begin re-crafting their brand to appeal to a more younger, yet highly sociable and influential market segment.
This move to Facebook Pages should mark the beginning of their strategy -- not the end of it. A previous commenter also stated that social networks are fads that are destined to fade into the digital dust as time goes on.
Well, even if that was true, it still makes sense to leverage that "fad" and take advantage of it while it still commands attention and attracts potential customers.
Myspace and Facebook's being around 5, 10, or 20 years from now is as relevant to the discussion as my shoe size is to Oprah Winfrey's sexual prowess.
Petty
· 1 year ago
What happened to customer loyalty? Few years ago builting customer loyalty was one of the key issues in order for a company to go higher. Nowadays it begins to fade? If I was a loyal Verizon customer/fan i would love to see Verizon create something exclusive and innovative. If on the other hand I am not a loyal customer/fan I wouldnt even bother join Verizon page on FB. Why would I wanna do that?
AskFrasco
· 1 year ago
A facebook page is a great start but not a complete strategy by any means. It may build some awareness but if you put up a page and say bam here is the strategy you are missing alot. You have to also be very careful of who your audience is and what you want to accomplish.
There are other innovative ways to incorporate a social platform that far exceeds facebook, myspace and other social networks. It is all about connecting the influencers to your brand and get them talking. If you don't have any good gossip for them to spread you are at a standstill.
Paul D
· 1 year ago
At first, I found Facebook to be a little confusing to navigate. But, with a little practice, it became easier. Not all "Free" applications are good applications. Facebook is one of the good ones!
Justine
· 1 year ago
Wow just what I always wanted! To join a FB page for my cell carrier! Christmas came early this year.
Matt
· 1 year ago
This is a good thought. I especially think that Google's friend connect could be the thing that lets brands do your last point (competitors can do the same thing) on their site, outside of Facebook's gate.
That said, Facebook is easy for brands, what isn't so easy is offering a relevant reason to return. Give people something to do, make it interesting, and they'll do it. Your reward will be fans will like you more for making the experience worthwhile. It can be copied, but not if it's relevant to the brand (a hard proposition, I know).
This is a very informative post. I just wanted to let you know that we have a product offering a similar solution. Check out NomaDesk and give it a try. If you have any questions just contact us!
Flat Panel Televisions
· 1 year ago
There applications are pretty cool. I guess myspace caught on ASAP
Chase McMichael
· 6 months ago
At UNBOUNDtech.com we are seeing people fanning the larger brands less but depending on the other promotion the brand is doing the growth is spectacular such as Man vs. Wild adding on 40K in just a week.
Verizon clearly has a grand opportunity to realize they can use the SN's as a Kungfu for their brand but its not about direct marketing but linking with the right people to do WOM which by far is the best way to leverage SN's for brands. Getting the right conversation started is not easy at all in our view because most brands have no clue who is on the social networks, what are they into and who is most connected to their brand.
I agree with the Email lists since SNs are very limiting to target notifications, however, brands can expand their reach via Social Network Intelligence.
All Comments
It's also very good to be on Twitter. Twitter has the potential to drive traffic, a la Jason Calacanis. (It probably won't drive traffic for most folks, however.) If your goal is to drive traffic, Facebook may not be for you. But it never hurts to have one.
You can check mine out here.
One word of advice: If you're going to have a Facebook page, you must interact with your fans!
i would say these types of social networking endeavours present a certain transparency to a company that could possibly be good.
The Idearc portion of the company (the interactive/online side) has been having severe problems since 2005-06. Stock has gone from $38 to $4. As of June 2nd, they even appointed a new CEO - Scott W. Klein.
There are already multiple "Verizon Sucks" types of sites on the net. Facebook having one or more is just another sign of dwindling times.
As a phone and directory company, Verizon/Idearc is not prepared to handle the high-speed change and evolution of media. Unfortunately- they have done the only thing they can do, jump on Facebook and hope the lifeboat keeps them afloat.
Verizon just doesn't have the brand appeal that would engage AND convince subscribers to add another online social community to his or her already bloated list.
There are very few companies that I can think of, off the top of my head, that command this kind of devotion and attention: Apple is definitely one of them.
That said, Verizon can take this as a prime opportunity to begin re-crafting their brand to appeal to a more younger, yet highly sociable and influential market segment.
This move to Facebook Pages should mark the beginning of their strategy -- not the end of it. A previous commenter also stated that social networks are fads that are destined to fade into the digital dust as time goes on.
Well, even if that was true, it still makes sense to leverage that "fad" and take advantage of it while it still commands attention and attracts potential customers.
Myspace and Facebook's being around 5, 10, or 20 years from now is as relevant to the discussion as my shoe size is to Oprah Winfrey's sexual prowess.
There are other innovative ways to incorporate a social platform that far exceeds facebook, myspace and other social networks. It is all about connecting the influencers to your brand and get them talking. If you don't have any good gossip for them to spread you are at a standstill.
That said, Facebook is easy for brands, what isn't so easy is offering a relevant reason to return. Give people something to do, make it interesting, and they'll do it. Your reward will be fans will like you more for making the experience worthwhile. It can be copied, but not if it's relevant to the brand (a hard proposition, I know).
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have a product offering a similar solution. Check out NomaDesk and give it a try.
If you have any questions just contact us!
Verizon clearly has a grand opportunity to realize they can use the SN's as a Kungfu for their brand but its not about direct marketing but linking with the right people to do WOM which by far is the best way to leverage SN's for brands. Getting the right conversation started is not easy at all in our view because most brands have no clue who is on the social networks, what are they into and who is most connected to their brand.
I agree with the Email lists since SNs are very limiting to target notifications, however, brands can expand their reach via Social Network Intelligence.