Facebook on Advanced Best Practices for Brands

During a rare visit to Asia, four vertical marketing experts from Facebook HQ in Palo Alto presented to a packed room in Hong Kong today. With specialists in automotive, retail and tech, the panel focused on helping brand managers and marketing executives understand how to leverage the platform beyond day to day page management.

Mike Fox, director of global vertical marketing at Facebook, kicked off the panel with some tips for how to move marketing and communications efforts toward the concept of Social by Design. According to Fox, all brands must build their presence from the ground up, keep it simple, put friends at the center of their messaging and scale, scale, scale.

He also mapped out four 'dimensions' for social marketing impact, namely connect, engage, influence and integrate.

The panelists downplayed the importance of apps, saying that most brands are lucky to get 2% of their fan bases engaging with apps. Of course, this doesn't mean brands should shy away from developing applications for the platform, but rather, brands should focus on who they're looking to engage and ensure they are engaging the right people.

Two other points that really resonated for me:
1. Brands must have an 'always-on' strategy as well as a campaign-based strategy. It's not one of the other.

2. Planning a social media strategy in silos (consulting, creative, build) will inhibit brands from reaching the continuum of Social by Design.

Of course, we wouldn't be at a Facebook event in Asia if someone didn't ask about China. According to the panelists, it's a 'non-goal' for now, meaning it will be a while before Facebook can enter China in a meaningful way while still staying true to the platform.

And last, but not least, a preview for what's to come on mobile! Well, not exactly, but a hint that the platform is reorienting itself around mobile with an experience that will begin to reward behaviors coming soon.

All in all, I wish we had more time. Just as the questions started going, our hour was up and it was off to the next event of Social Media Week. It's always reassuring to hear 'straight from the horse's mouth,' and I look forward to seeing more growth on Facebook here in Asia!

Announcing...

After several months of planning and global coordination, it's with great pleasure that I welcome the launch of Social@Ogilvy, Ogilvy & Mather's new cross-discipline social media marketing practice.

As Facebook pointed out during a panel this afternoon in Hong Kong, the first stage for many businesses is one of experimentation, setting benchmarks and seeing what's possible. In other words, it's the 'social media' stage.

Next, comes the 'social marketing stage' - one in which benchmarks are set and brands begin to grow in their sophistication on the platform, potentially branching beyond just page management to leverage the platform in new ways, such as through apps and Facebook Ads.

Several brands, however, are one step further. It's the stage of 'social business.' That's the stage in which social has made its way to the heart of the enterprise, having permeated not only through marketing communications, but through all other departments.

This is what Social@Ogilvy is all about - bringing social media beyond marketing communications to enable sales, facilitate customer care, and impact CRM. It's something Ogilvy has been doing for a long time, but for the first time today, we are calling it by an official name.

Interested in learning more? Connect with Social@Ogilvy online in the following places...
Blog: social.ogilvy.com
Twitter: twitter.com/socialogilvy
Facebook: facebook.com/socialogilvy
SlideShare: slideshare.com/socialogilvy