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Facebook's Mike Murphy on friending brands

By Brian Morrissey

Murphy1

Facebook vp, global media sales Mike Murphy has a simple pitch to brands: Ads on Facebook have a "significantly higher" engagement rate than ads elsewhere on the Internet. The Facebook advertising chief chatted about what the booming social network has learned when it comes to advertising on the site. The No. 1 thing: Its decision to limit ads and have them mimic the user experience has worked out well, considering the site recently said it passed 300 million users and is cash flow positive. "We want to make Facebook as fun for brands as it is for users," he said.
  Facebook is now focusing on building tools for marketers to measure their performance beyond clicks. It struck a deal with Nielsen (the parent company of Adweek) to address advertisers' branding goals and who is engaging with them. It is testing a new ad product called Learned Targeting, which displays engagement ads to people Facebook has determined are more likely to be fans of the brand based on its existing fan base on Facebook. It is also encouraging brands to set up pages on the site. (They're free.)

  Some brands have seen success in building huge fan bases. Of the top 25 fan pages, three (Coke, Starbucks and Skittles) are owned by brands. Brands with robust pages that were highlighted by Murphy: Starbucks (personal messages from founder Howard Schultz), JCPenney (shopping from the page) and Best Buy (an app for users to solicit feedback from Facebook friends on potential purchases). Of the top 100 brands, 83 have run Facebook ad campaigns, he said. "It's important to have a presence because this is where people spend their time," he added.

September 24, 2009 in Digital | Permalink

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I think this will be a real test of Facebook's targeting ability and ability to convert a fan base into consumers.

Posted by: Steve Yakoban | Sep 24, 2009 5:03:00 PM

Good luck Facebook. Your are better off charging for the service. Fan Pages DO NOT WORK! Why? Ask people how many go back to the page after they become a fan? I am a fan of so many bands and music oriented Fan Pages which is my biggest passion. I almost never go to their page. as for posting into the News Feed after you have about 50 active news feed users the volume is so high most of us log in...read the front page...and that is it. Twitter is not different. I have done a private study and Tweeters average about 6 tweets per day. So multiply that times the number you follow and good luck having your tweet seen. As for Mike's biased view on consumer engagement on Facebook. I do not believe him.

I wish to state I do not hate Facebook. I might not like Zuckerberg. And I might state factually in 3-4 years something will supllant Facebook. But I do use it. and the technology for communicating is slick. Why not charge for it? Why it is being promoted as an Advertising Platform vs a Consumer Technology Platform. Social Media as a way to engage with consumers for brands using the technology is great. But as an Advertising platform click through rates are very low and people really aren't interested. Sorry to be blunt and factual. But the moment someone offers a similar service Ad Free with walls around everyone is going to jump ship. Facebook should charge $2/month and they will instantly have a 7 billion business vs what they have now.

Posted by: Howie | Sep 25, 2009 1:01:48 PM

I concur with Steve's remarks. I would cheerfully pay for a site that didn't claim ownership of the content I posted, or data-mine me as a user. I NEVER click on Facebook ads, even though I am a Facebook user and an advertising professional, because I don't trust the Facebook interface. And I don't take their quizzes for exactly the same reason.

Posted by: Paula Ashley | Sep 29, 2009 11:11:13 AM

Here, here Paula! I recently signed up for Facebook more for work than personal - and will never take the quizzes etc, or pay attention to the ads for your exact same reason.

Posted by: Michelle | Sep 29, 2009 2:22:28 PM

i totally agree with Howie's remarks.

I personally belong to the social networking http://www.zovue.com and they don' own any og my content and they don't data mine.

I can store photos on http://www.zovue.com and my friends can download the high quality photo if they want to print them later.
I also can store videos on Zovue, and they also have instant messenger and an online shopping network.

i dont like sites that try to get all this personal information, its kinda creepy

Posted by: Marcia | Oct 6, 2009 9:16:29 AM

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