Facecrook - You're nicked!

Yorkshire police have started to use Facebook (and YouTube) to catch Graffiti 'artists'. They have started a group called 'Harrogate Safer Neighbourhood Team' that shows 'tags' from the artists in the hope that younger members of the community might know who has been vandalising local buildings.

It has already led to four arrests - Go Social Media crime fighters!

Not the best quality video from Harrogate Police:

2007 the year of Facebook

How much media coverage has FACEBOOK got the last few weeks, let alone this year! Following the Facebook Beacon PR disaster, are they loosing out with selling ad space?

I have only seen blank adverts:

Wadds feels that the advertisers are trying to get him to have a hair transplant, maybe they will make me get a new shirt?

Apparently with Facebook ads you can:

"Advanced Targeting -Target by age, gender, location, interests, and more.

Content Integration -Get noticed, not skipped.

Flexible Pricing -Buy clicks (CPC) or impressions (CPM).

Trusted Referrals - Attach friend-to-friend interactions about your business to your ads."

Looking at another part of the Facebook promotion machine - The Stereophonics have managed to miss a trick and not link their application with there band profile page!

Quiz; how many Celebrities can you get in one advert:

Can Facebook work for PR? – Part 2 – Guest Post

As I previously mentioned I would be keeping an eye on uses of PR within Facebook.

I got in contact with Lee Henshaw, founder of 'Silence' a London based online advertising agency that were hired by Alicia Keys to boost her online profile. Silence created the “As I Am” application for Facebook as part of the brief.

Lee recently commented on Brandrepublic:
'Social media are a challenge for publicists,'...'There are no editors, so to reach this community you have to act like a friend, rather than as an advertiser.'

Lee had this to say:

'Of all the social networks, Facebook represents the biggest challenge for publicists.

You Tube, for example, has Featured Videos, and My Space has Featured Artists. These are editorial slots that a publicist can negotiate.

Facebook doesn't offer similar opportunities. You can set up a Facebook group, of course, but doing that well requires a flare for a rarer PR skill, the publicity stunt. Looking at groups my friends are joining and leaving today, I see that the group for the Manchester band Red Vinyl Fur has less than 200 members, while the “I Secretly Want To Punch Slow Walking People In The Back Of The Head” group has nearly 750,000 members.

The people behind the “I Secretly Want To Punch Slow Walking People In The Back Of The Head” group are publicising a Facebook app called Sekret Gifts. A good PR stunt? Yes and no. If they'd chosen to advertise their app and paid an £8 CPM, for example, it would have cost £6,000 to generate 750,000 page impressions. How much did it cost them to conceive this group? A few rounds in the pub, you'd guess. Their Sekret Gifts app though has only been added 4,000 times (representing a modest 0.005% click through rate), and wherever this wonderfully titled group is written about online, the app is never mentioned. There's no connection between the group and the product in the same way that Cadbury, for example, had one for its Bring Back Wispa groups.

As for Red Vinyl Fur, maybe their Facebook group would be more popular if its title reflected something they stood for - Girls With Guitars Rock Harder Than Boys, say. London's Heaven nightclub, for example, has a group that will donate 1p to a cancer charity for every member it attracts. They currently have 25,000 members, leaving them with a £250 donation to make. Their £10 CPM is arguably more cost-effective than paying for a website to serve 1,000 page impressions because they're paying for 1,000 people to respond to a call-to-action, and, of course, they're supporting a good cause rather than lining an online publisher's pocket.

The Facebook group, therefore, should be the publicist's responsibility. The right stunt can reach 1000's and if you make it newsworthy, maybe millions. The Facebook app, however, can't be the publicist's alone, because, as with most products, you can't make a Facebook app popular without advertising it.

There are 10,000 Facebook apps but only 4 of them - Super Wall, Funwall, Top Friends and Video - have over 1m active users. Publicists can conceive apps, manage their build, and contributing to their popularity by ensuring they're written about, but that approach alone will never bother the most popular apps. Parlaphone, for example, got plenty of publicity for Kylie's Kylierobotics app, but it only has 169 active users (Which Spice Girl are You? has 10,000). To break through the clutter you need a budget to advertise the app on Facebook, and Facebook will only start talking to you when you have a minimum of $50,000 to spend, which, while PR remains the thin end of the wedge, eclipses most publicity budgets.'

Instead of a advert, this week I am going for a video of my guest blogger:

Can Facebook work for PR?

One of the main questions asked at last nights NMK event was:



"Can you show me an example of where a planned Facebook campaign has worked for an online PR ?"

Yesterday NMA announce that Kylie's new album 'X' will be available to download first (today) on Nokia's music store before the general release. This ties in nicely with the Facebook application kylierobotics.

Application description:

Send your Friends your favourite Kylie Robotic or even create your own! You can either look through the archives of Kylie robotics based on her different outfits over the years or send the new album 'X' Kylie to your friends.

The campaign is being handled by Parlophone, and follows Kylie's launch of her own social network http://www.blogger.com/www.KylieKonnect.com. Kylie is busy online!

The application currently only has 883 daily active users (1 is now me)! Some way behind Wispa, HSBC and Cadburys Gorilla groups. But maybe an application is the way to go? - More interactive?

Definitely one to keep an eye on!

Better finish with a Kylie advert:

A glass and a half full of joy?

With almost as big facebook following as Spiderpig, the Cadburys Gorilla is pretty cool. (Or is that an unshaven Phil Collins?). PRWeek had the advert up for 'Hit or Miss', they went for the same outcome I would have = HIT!!! Apparently it is linked into the sponsorship of the 7km 'Great Gorilla Run' on 22nd September, I would have liked it anyway...

There is a fantastic piece of in depth discussion relating to the advert on 'altogether digital', it goes into what brands are having to do to make an advert stand out in a crowd.

The moment you have all been waiting for:

Facebook again

A few posts in, and another Facebook mention! They better start paying me soon...especially when the advertising kicks in.

Brand republic today highlighted the news that facebook is going to start 'targeted' advertising. Using details from you favourite music, films, books and activities but not personal details, they will allow advertisers to put targeted adverts on your personal mini-feed.

Commenting on Brand Republic - Dean Donaldson from digital marketing company Eyeblaster isn't a fan, can't say I am either. Ironically Dean has used facebook to vert his frustration, I wander if big brother is watching? I appreciate that Facebook have to make money, but an 'opt in' option would be nice Mr Zuckerberg - we get some adverts already that we can cope with NO MORE PLEASE!. You have the edge on Myspace, don't blow it...Facebook has grown 366% since the start of the year and attracted an audience of 7.6 million unique visitors.

Great use of 2.30mins of you life, great advert, great song...better in the cinema:

Starter for 10

What better place to start than with facebook! I am a facebook fan, perfect for keeping in contact with friends (especially those that are abroad), setting up events and wasting time...Fair enough facebook has security flaws and so does Myspace, but I have found a 2.0 'friend'/marketer making the most of it all - Tom.

I am 'friends' with Tom, but so are 1312 others! That makes a mockery of the 198 friends I have. He is an event manager for Londonparties.co.uk and his facebook is an extension of his work. I get regular updates on 'events' @ Chinawhite and so do the 1312 others. With 34 yes' and 74 maybes I guess that's not a bad return for his guest list.

Good use of technology Tom, not quite sure on your choice of recipients (IE me!)...

"Most table bookings normally have a minimum spend of around £500 - £1000" See you there?!?!

Great advert from across the pond: