I read with interest a post recently sent from a Facebook group asking whether ads on Facebook would still qualify it to be referred to as Social Media Marketing? 

Recently Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, opened up advertising on Facebook  taking the approach of ‘social actions’ of its users. (1) 

Zuckerberg stated “The core of every user’s experience on Facebook is their page and that’s where (all) businesses are going to start as well. Social actions are powerful because they act as trusted referrals and reinforce the fact that people influence people. It’s no longer just about messages that are broadcasted out by companies, but increasingly about information that is shared between friends. Social Ads can appear either within a user’s News Feed as sponsored content or in the ad space along the left side of the site.”

Some people say taking this next step is evolutionary. It first started with banner ads, then online giants like Craigslist used classifieds, and the third was Google ( & most search engines ) with the use of search advertising. 

These same people will say that ads do not make the cut as “social media marketing.” An ad is still an ad…as has been said its “brand speak versus being consumer speak.” Since social media is conversations WITH the community, this somehow disqualifies Facebook’s ads. Somewhere in the conversation we supposedly loose the sanctity of the conversation economy. As David Armano wrote about recently in Business Week, “Conversation leads to relationships and relationships lead to affinity,” Armano continues. Affinity, in turn, results in communities. “This is why anyone who plays a role in growing brands needs to become a conversation architect.”

David Armano continues, (the) “Conversation architects move marketing beyond the idea of one-way messaging. Traditional marketing efforts were founded on this tried-and-true format and are still prevalent within the industry. Consider the example of a typical creative brief template, which usually says something like, “What are we trying to communicate?” Can you see the old-world residue in the word “communicate”? It lacks the dimensions of experiencing something and having an ongoing two-way dialogue. “What are we trying to communicate?” implies a one-way conversation. Maybe we should ask ourselves: “How can we facilitate?” (2)

Others such as Brian Solis do a nice comparison in Conversational Marketing Vs Market Conversations.(3)

So I ask, after all this conversation about conversation, does it really matter if ads qualify as social media marketing? No. It’s about as silly as the Soup Nazi yelling to keep people in line. Keeping the “purity” of social media marketing just for the sake of purity truly won’t amount to “a hill of beans” if you can’t pay your bills. Business is in business to make a profit. Ads help make a business profitable. Trying to hold out and avoid ads is like being the last one on the Titanic and refusing a life vest because you’re a good swimmer. In the end, as a matter of survival, it really doesn’t matter does it…only surviving does.

I like what Celine Ruffet Directeur France at Qype added,  “Indeed I think you can use Facebook to promote a brand in many different ways including social media marketing but which is the most difficult part of the job!

Many brands are doing a page + ads on Facebook without any “social” way of thinking. This is usually the social part of their marketing plan.

As an example, some brands are using their logo on their page which is absolutely not a social way to act ! A basic recommendation is to create a “real profile” with of photo. To do social marketing, people need to be involve in the process (an artistic director, a boss, a beautiful PR girl…)

In order to discuss & create an exchange with the community, you need to personalise your communication on Facebook and live like a “human being” not a brand! Invite people to take a drink, create micro events in an apartment, put some photos, videos, say personal stuff on your life… People absolutely need to feel it is “real” and “exclusive”. ” (4)

As Matthew Ray of http://www.ourdrivetoalaska.com says “you need to reach your audience at a social level! Discuss, learn from them as they learn from you.”
 
(1)  http://www.facebook.com/press/releases.php?p=9176
(2)  http://www.briansolis.com/2007/09/conversational-marketing-versus-market.html
(3)  http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2007/09/19/can-marketing-be-conversational/
(4)  http://www.linkedin.com/newsArticle?viewDiscussion=&articleID=18141582&gid=66275&trk=add-news-lnk-cThOon0JumNFomgJt7dBpSBA

Can you generate enough traffic to make it worth your while in terms of sales? Look over what Starbucks did with Facebook as reported in The Election, Starbucks and Social Media Marketing by DrakeCooper 

“Starbucks set up a straightforward Facebook event that looks to be created and administrated by someone inside the company. I am betting this is about an hour investment of their time – max. And…they have garnered 423,792 invitations from people on Facebook just forwarding it around to their friends. Also, 164,883 people have said they will attend with most of the rest still awaiting response. There is also 13,187 wall posts and tons of pictures, etc. That is pretty heavy duty work for a social media campaign - driving a ton of traffic to them on FB – which also has other things for people to do, like see the commercial, participate in the “My Starbucks Idea” section and more. I would love to see their web stats today. If you are on Facebook check it out here. ”

You can read the whole article at http://www.drakecooper.com/news/2008/11/electiion-starbucks-and-social-media.html

At Social Marketing Expert we always to remember that Social Media should be used with the long “haul” in mind. Unfortunately, many mistakenly see and use it for one-time, quick shots of exposure.

Jay Zaltzman quotes Jenka Gurfinkel who says, “Really effective social media strategy is about integrating methods for generating exposure through social media and online communities into the campaign strategy from the beginning. ” More of Jay’s insights can be found in this article:

Effective Social Media Marketing
Social media is a hot topic nowadays. Most marketers know it is important, but many are unsure how social media should fit into their marketing strategy. First, let’s define what social media is: typically, social media refers to … 

And if you’ve got a strategy, in today’s economy, it’s gotta be affordable, right? Author of the next article, Marc Meyer says “In other words how can they (small bizz) drive traffic and sales and leads and eyeballs to their sites and products on the cheap.”

Guerrilla marketing and social media marketing-an imperfect perfect union
If done right, guerrilla marketing can and has been very very successful in growing brands, creating viral buzz, and driving sales, eyeballs and traffic to products or companies. Why mesh guerrilla marketing with social media marketing …

I found a nice, but basic PowerPoint presentation given to Cisco Systems by Michael Brito from http://www.britopian.com/.

They participated in a learning series that trains employees about the basics of Web 2.0.  The class was about social bookmarking, tagging and labels.

I just wrote an article about Twitter (geared more toward newbies.)

You can read it at http://socialmarketingexpert.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/09/how-to-use-twit.html