Facebook and Zuckerberg: Gorilla Marketing, or Gorilla Tactics?

My kids are out of town, so this weekend my wife and I watched a bunch of movies on Netflix. The chick flicks didn’t do as much for me, but one of them, The Social Network, really got me thinking. Everyone knows about Facebook, and how we use it to keep up with cousins, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends, and even the occasional ex boyfriend or girlfriend, but should we really be using it to try and convince people to buy our products and services? I’m not sure, but there sure seems to be a lot of buzz about social media as a marketing tactic in circles of those who talk about marketing.

I liked in the movie how Zuckerberg was hesitant to allow advertising on Facebook. He wanted it to be cool. I think it is cool too, but not when people friend me with the specific intent of trying to sell me something. I got a call from a guy I didn’t know who wanted to pitch to me because he saw that I was a friend of a friend on Facebook. I said no. Maybe I should have said yes, and pretended to be in a cult when he came to visit, and try to recruit him to one of my meetings at the North Raleigh Hilton. That would have made for a great laugh. My point is, as a nice guy, I will take his call, but if I feel duped into taking the call I’m not going to be a happy camper.

OK, here it is. From a marketing perspective, we should not expect anyone to buy anything because of our Facebook pages, but we can use social media as an effective way to develop consumers (and brand loyalty) to the point that when they are ready to execute a transaction, they are predisposed to buy from us. Use Facebook as a way to share information and gather opinions from thought leaders, and focus less on the volume of information you provide, and more on the quality of information you are providing, and people will listen to what you have to say. Send out junk, they won’t. Heck, I hid my own companies Facebook page one time because we were using it for the wrong reason. We were telling people how great we were (which we are), instead of allowing our friends and customers to speak for us. There is a big difference there.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to see pictures of my friend’s babies, and puppies, and hear about broken hearts and new jobs, but don’t try and pitch me on Facebook into buy a new washing machine. Maybe Zuckerberg was right. Maybe it is enough to be cool, without worrying about making a buck.