The process behind development of Facebook concepts

Report from the seminar held on 16.04.09 at the SAS Radisson hotel, organised by Komfo and Huset Markedsføring.

The event provided a useful insight into practical experiences with Facebook right now, and the factors that should be given special attention if you are considering using Facebook in the company's marketing plan.

At the event, participants heard about the entire process behind the development of Facebook concepts and media strategy from companies and agencies with practical experience of this, and saw statistics provided by the companies themselves on the effect of their Facebook applications. The event also provided advice on legal matters which should be taken into consideration, and described new ways to apply success criteria to a social network like Facebook. The following is a brief summary of the contributions of the various speakers at the event.

The report is aimed at people who have an interest in the subject but were unable to participate in the event, and is provided as a service to our clients and contacts.

The report is entirely based on our own impressions of the points made by the various speakers, and should be regarded as such. It may be influenced by our own position in relation to Facebook.

Table of Contents

1    Overall status report on the media situation (Patrick Damsted, Damstedberg)       
2    The commercial uses of Facebook (Rasmus Møller-Nielsen, Komfo)     
3    The conceptual challenges on Facebook (Søren Schultz Hansen, Magnetix)    
4    Documenting the effect of Facebook (Christian Strand, IUM)     
5    Legal aspects (Frank Bøggild, Kromann/Reumert)    
6    TELMORE (Tue Ansvig Sø, marketing coordinator)     
7    Youth Division of the Union of Commercial and Clerical Employees in Denmark (HK) (Mathias Askholm, youth secretary)

1) Overall status report on the media situation (Patrick Damsted, Damstedberg)

Patrick Damsted, a partner in the Damstedberg communication agency, provided an overall status report on the media situation, and contrasted the traditional media with the new media. He explained why the traditional print and broadcast media were in crisis, and why so little had as yet been done to exploit the possibilities of the new social media.

With a social medium like Facebook, it is necessary to stop thinking in terms of target groups and consumers, and instead focus on people and customers. The financial crisis is in reality a crisis of confidence between the companies and their customers – confidence which will require work to re-establish. We must think in terms of acquiring social capital among the people with whom we do business. Social capital consists primarily of two things:

•    Bonding = creating groups with homogenous needs
•    Bridging = linking these groups

The theory is not new, but Facebook meets precisely this need for its users, which is something that companies can make use of to rebuild confidence among their customers. This means that the decisive factor is not the number of Facebook friends and fans; the benefit lies rather in interplay with the people who create value for the company. To sum up, you could say that ROI ought to be replaced with ROF (Return on Friends) – it is just a damn difficult thing to measure. Go to top

2) The commercial uses of Facebook (Rasmus Møller-Nielsen, Komfo)

Rasmus Møller-Nielsen, managing director of Komfo, provided an overview of the Facebook company and subsequently focused on the commercial possibilities of the platform. He described the four Facebook tools most often used by companies, and the Facebook vision behind these tools. The essence of his message was that companies should refrain from using Personal Profiles and Groups, and instead focus on the tools Public Profiles (Fan Pages) and Applications.

In a Public Profile, the focus is on brands and companies, of which interested users can become "fans". Rasmus Møller-Nielsen emphasised that dialogue is the central element in a Public Profile, which functions primarily as a tool for communicating with core customers or staff. The tool is not designed to locate new staff or customers, but rather to retain and improve relations with the existing ones.

A Facebook application, on the other hand, is a supplementary program on the user's profile, and enables full control to be exercised over functions and design, with the result that there are no limitations on creativity. Rasmus Møller-Nielsen spoke about the various possibilities of applications, using examples developed by Komfo, such as Nordea's trainee test, the Air Force community with its quiz, test and debate forum, TELMORE's customer community and the communication tool for commercial school students of the youth division of the Union of Commercial and Clerical Employees in Denmark (HK). (You can read about the latter applications at the end of this report.) The four cases exemplified four different strategies towards Facebook:

1. Traffic from Facebook to website (Nordea)
2. Traffic between Facebook and website (The Royal Danish Air Force).
3. Keeping traffic separate on Facebook and the website (TELMORE)
4. Transferring the entire content to Facebook (HK)

According to Rasmus Møller-Nielsen, there will be more focus in future on the distribution of content between websites and Facebook. This will mean that new websites will be increasingly social and viral in nature, in parallel with the increasing integration of Facebook data. For a company's customer relations, this will result in more dialogue-based and immediate communication with the customers, and the opportunity to participate in increased knowledge-sharing and product development with the most committed customers. Go to top

3) The conceptual challenges on Facebook (Søren Schultz Hansen, Magnetix)

Søren Schultz Hansen, Head of User Experience at Magnetix, began by talking about the fundamental characteristics that a project needs to enable the integration of Facebook applications. If the main aim is to communicate with younger target groups, then Facebook is clearly the best channel to use, as by and large all young people are represented on the medium and use it every day. Younger target groups also see less TV than formerly, so TV is no longer the preferred medium with which to market services to the younger segment. Søren emphasised however that Facebook should be considered as a means of communication with all target groups, as the older part of the population has increasingly begun to make use of the social network.

Søren then outlined the specific elements that it is especially important to take into account in the creative approach when developing a Facebook concept. He explained that, in the first place, it is essential that the concept is involving and has built-in viral elements, so that users can successfully share it with their networks and thereby spread the message. As much of the viral nature is built-in and automatic, it is particularly important that the message should be presented in an interesting way on the user's profile and in the news streams of the user's friends, so that the user is promoted in the best possible way together with the message, and thereby becomes a better ambassador.

The value of finding the 'perfect ambassador' type is lower on Facebook, as the exposure derives in any case from the user's friends, so it is more important to concentrate on the virality – getting everyone to share. The concept should also be simple and explanatory, and should engage the user's interest from the start, to ensure that users do not click away.

Facebook should be regarded as a verbal medium, and for this reason, Søren recommended using an informal tone in the message, with humour playing a useful role in the concept.

Søren also recommended that, instead of thinking in large, completed concepts, it was better to think in terms of several small launches, as, given the rapid pace of development on Facebook, it is more important to get as many users as possible to use the concept to begin with, and then refine and enhance the concept over time. Go to top

4) Documenting the effect of Facebook (Christian Strand, IUM)

Christian Strand, Group Interactive Director at IUM, spoke about why Facebook is an interesting medium from his point of view, and how social networks could be efficiently documented. IUM has conducted a number of analyses of "The Super Influencer – the perfect ambassador" and has discovered that the description of this matches very well with the core users of Facebook. In contrast to Søren Schultz Hansen, Christian Strand emphasised the importance of focusing on the ideal ambassador.

With respect to tracking in Facebook platforms/campaigns, a number of tools are available which can be used to analyse and measure how the users utilise the applications. In principle, Facebook applications can be tracked just like any other platforms on the Net.
Examples of data that can be extracted include:

•    Number of profiles in the database and number of active users per month
•    Total number of visits, visits per day, and unique visits
•    Number of new users and number of returning users
•    Page views
•    Time spent on the page per visitor
•    Bounce rate (how many users view only one page at the site)

It is now also possible to track the viral effect of Facebook applications. The idea behind measuring the viral effect is to discover how many new users are generated by each individual user. Many factors have an influence on the viral effect, but the most important thing is to focus on those that under-perform compared to the average on Facebook, thereby revealing where you can adapt the message and campaign on an ongoing basis. Go to top

5) Legal aspects (Frank Bøggild, Kromann/Reumert)

Frank Bøggild, a solicitor with the legal firm of Kromann/Reumert, spoke about the legal factors companies should take into consideration before developing a Facebook concept, and provided an introduction to the relevant legislation and guidelines. Despite the fact that Facebook as a whole is subject to the law applicable in Delaware, Danish companies who market themselves on Facebook must still observe the Danish Marketing Practices Act.

Of the four tools that Facebook promotes, it is only legal for companies to communicate commercially on Public Profiles and Applications. User Profiles are for persons only, and may not therefore be used for commercial purposes by creating fictional persons. Similarly, it is not permitted for companies to utilise groups for marketing, but it is legal to refer to a group in other commercial communication, provided the group is genuinely independent. Public Profiles are designed for commercial use. Frank Bøggild emphasised however that the sender of the messages should be very clearly identified (pursuant to the Marketing Practices Act and the E-commerce Act).

Marketing via applications touches upon a number of personal data issues. Facebook's personal data terms are extensive, but Frank Bøggild emphasised two provisions of special relevance in this area:
1. Consent must be obtained from the users to collect and process any personal information.
2. If an application collects personal information, the application owner must have a privacy/data policy which explains how the information will be used.

Frank Bøggild therefore recommended that the application should be designed to collect and process only relevant, non-sensitive information, such as name, gender and age – and not information on political convictions, religion, sexual orientation, etc. The consent of the users should naturally be obtained for this. In order to avoid a situation in which the first Facebook case to be sent to the consumer ombudsman (for spam and hidden marketing) is a controversial matter which attracts the attention of TV consumer programmes or the like, he recommended getting some of the first companies to use the platform commercially to test out an innocent concept. Go to top

6) TELMORE (Tue Ansvig Sø, marketing coordinator)

A Facebook application has been developed for the mobile phone company TELMORE which allows the company to enter into dialogue with those users who have chosen to follow TELMORE on Facebook, thereby helping the company to develop and consolidate its customer relations. Tue Ansvig Sø, TELMORE's marketing co-ordinator, spoke about the company's experiences with the Facebook application and the effect it has had on their products and services.

On TELMORE's Public Profile, customers can discuss TELMORE and mobile phones in general with each other, and contributions are often answered by TELMORE's internal Facebook working group. The customers can also communicate with TELMORE on the profile concerning any problems they may have, make suggestions for improvements, and influence future initiatives by the company. A viral application has been developed for TELMORE which is based on creating relevant services for Facebook users, and which thereby spreads awareness of TELMORE on Facebook.

The application was given a 'soft launch' which focused on improving customer relations, and the traffic will initially be kept on Facebook. The next step will be for the Facebook application and the company's Public Profile to be integrated, so that traffic runs between these and secures activity on the company's Public Profile. Later in the process, the aim is to increase the traffic from Facebook to TELMORE's website, and thereby optimise sales.

Tue explained that while the Facebook initiative is not particularly costly to develop, it is time-consuming to maintain, as dialogue with the customers can be demanding. The conclusion, however, was that implementing the concept has thus far proved well worthwhile. TELMORE has enhanced its customer relations, and the most committed users have become valuable ambassadors for the mobile phone company. Go to top

7) Youth Division of the Union of Commercial and Clerical Employees in Denmark (HK) (Mathias Askholm, youth secretary)

Mathias Askholm of HK's youth division spoke about the union's Facebook initiative, which is mainly aimed at teaching environments in the country's commercial schools, focusing primarily on the young people themselves. The target group is therefore relatively narrow (commercial school students) and is difficult to reach using the traditional media, as the segment shares characteristics with all other young people. The choice fell on Facebook, as the target group was very much present in this medium, and HK could therefore utilise the users' networks to spread their message. Mathias Askholm emphasised that it was also ideal for HK to make use of existing networks rather than advertising via the broad and costly traditional media, for which the HK youth division had no budget at the present time.

An application was developed for HK with which students can rate their schools on a grading scale and see how well their school scores in relation to other schools. Facebook is thereby utilised to promote greater loyalty and increase the level of interest in the youth division of HK by showing the users that HK shares their interests. In one and a half months, more than 1,500 students had evaluated 44 of the 49 commercial schools all over the country, and HK's youth division had thereby potentially activated and communicated with 12% of its target group – without, we should note, requiring any additional marketing of the tool on Facebook.

Mathias pointed out that, as was the case with TELMORE, the process is time-consuming, as it takes time to activate the valuable ambassadors to spread the message and secure its viral dissemination, but that in the final analysis it has proven to be a very effective way to stimulate the interest of the users.

HK has thereby developed a communication tool which matches the union's needs, is attractive for the target group to use, and creates added value for this group of users in their daily activities on Facebook. The tool can also be used to communicate with the target group in future, and is thus not limited to this particular campaign. Go to top


For further information about the seminar, please contact Rasmus Møller-Nielsen.