CMA Conference – Day 2 Mike Murphy, Facebook

Clive Lobo

Mike Murhpy from Facebook kicks off day 2 of the CMA Conference. Will the rest of the day be as good as day 1? Given the lineup I certainly expect it to be.

A quick poll Mike did on Facebook prior the conference of Torontonians shows that the 18-24 year olds prefer referrals from friends as a means of advertising. This shows a tremendous opportunity that social media platforms have as an advertising platform.

Creating compelling content is something that will make this work. One key component of making advertising on social media networks successful is making the content appealing enough to want to share, without making the advertising message the core factor of the piece – it should be secondary to the “entertainment” factor.

What makes Facebook unique and interesting?

  • Were known as a social network, but believe they are different. Facebook is not meant to meet new people, but to interact with existing friends.
  • Users must authenticate into a network on Facebook – whether it’s a college or corporate network by providing a .edu or corporate email address.
  • Privacy settings allows you to control how much of your information can be shared with non friends.
  • Facebook is 57000 networks and the users only have access to a small portion of the entire user-base because it’s about their friends and not everyone thats on the system.
  • Well over 50 Million users, adding over 200, 000 users per day.
  • Over 50% of users visit the site every day.
  • Experiencing dramatic growth in Canada and other countries including South Africa, Egypt, India and Australia.
  • Each user added to Facebook adds additional value to all users on the system because each user related to the new one has a better overall experience and this trickles down through the relationships.

Facebook users – their demographic are very willing to answer questions and interact with marketers.

The decision to allow 3rd party developers create Facebook applications was tough but smart decision. As a result the user experience improved at a rate far greater than if they attempted to develop applications themselves.

  • Facebook has more Photo Sharing page views than other photo sharing sites
  • Facebook delivers more Events invitations in a month than evites does in a single year.

Millions of users on Facebook mention brand names in their profiles. These data sets can be mined and used by marketers to develop applications and leverage the network for advertising activities.

Facebook groups are another mechanism for connecting with brand advocates – very loyal brand advocates.

The New ROI – Return on Involvement.

  • Connect with people who identify with your brand
  • Give a reason to share
  • Watch your message spread
  • Get new consumer insights

Questions and Answers

Q: What is facebook doing to prevent 3rd party applications from annoying the user experience?

A: Users vote by controlling the realestate on their profiles -so the system is naturally self controlled.

Q: Is there a way marketers can promote the use of applications?

A: Because Facebook is a viral site the organic marketing that happens in news feed is what creates the most growth for applications. 10% of the applications get most of the traffic. Mike’s group is responsible to ignite the viral component of an application.

Q: What is Facebook doing to improve the user experience for companies developing Facebook applications?

A: Facebook is constantly working with the developer network to answer their questions and concerns and improve the development tools and infrastructure. There are many VC firms funding developers who purely develop Facebook applications, so investors in these companies should not be concerned.

“Marketers need to be a part of the experience.”
                                            – Mike Murphy

Clive Lobo

Spark’s resident boss man, Clive possesses the very nature of an entrepreneurial spirit.

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