What does Facebook's New Messaging Platform Mean For You?
Ever since the first "spam" message was posted to the net (On May 3, 1978 to be exact), online messaging has been looking for good ways to slow down the flow of unwanted advertising. In the latest attempt at combatting the spam problem, Facebook announced a major expansion of its messaging platform giving each of its 500 million members access to a @facebook.com email address.
How will this change the way we communicate with one another online? Facebook believes that if you only allow immediate access to your inbox by "friends" and consider everything else "spam" that it will help do away with the billions of unsolicited pharmaceutical, porn and scam emails that plague email inboxes today. Proponents of the more traditional email model point out that legitimate messages from "non-friends" will be treated the same as junk or marketing mail.
Regardless of which opinion camp you fall in to, one thing is clear. In spite of the junk mail onslaught that mailboxes receive every day, email is a long way from breathing its last breath (the lowly fax machine is the one that's currently on life support). However, bulk email delivery rates for newsletters, marketing campaigns and general updates are suffering from a dismally low rate of delivery, and an even lower click-through rate to those users who have legitimately requested to be a part of your list. It's simply becoming more and more difficult to deliver email to the masses. Even SMS messaging has inherent disadvantages. While enjoying a high open rate, text message marketing is off-the-charts in research for its invasiveness and "annoying factor".
Many social networking "experts" point to Twitter and Facebook as the holy grail of marketing. But the truth of the matter is, it's only one piece to a much larger puzzle. Rather than get stressed out about your company only having a few hundred Facebook "likes", or Twitter "followers", take a step back to eliminate the tunnel vision.
Keep this all in perspective. Remember that those people online have only made a commitment to your company in the form of a mouse click. In most cases, it doesn't go any deeper than that.
Also remember, that big numbers don't always equate to big conversions. Organizations with tens of thousands of likes or followers often do not see those numbers convert into legitimate sales no matter how well thought out a campaign might be.
It's still anyone's guess as to whether Facebook's new messaging platform is going to become anything more than a blip on the public's radar. But at the very least, this will become yet another means of proactively reaching out to your company's customer base, or your band's fans, or your bank's depositors, or your restaurant's regulars. It will become yet another arm of your marketing machine that you need to monitor, measure and maintain. And with so many businesses already being "behind the 8-ball" when it comes to harnessing social networks, it will potentially create another hurdle that only the most attentive companies will be able to jump in order to effectively get their message out thru this means.
After throwing a wet blanket on the enthusiasm of Facebook's new marketing channel, we do offer a ray of hope. The key to making online marketing work is to do your best to utilize as many angles as you can. This means not only working those tired and hard-to-deliver email blasts, but also rigorously utilize the resources you've got in your social networks as well. Is it a lot of work? You bet. But it can help in converting those fickle one-click likes into long-term customers. And on the bright side, there are some very powerful tools that exist now to help you make this process as easy as possible. The Kapelle system that Mad Dancer Media offers is one such tool which we are, of course, partial towards. But other tools like ArtistData, Ping.FM, HelloTXT and even simple RSS feeds can make this large task more digestible.
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