Facebook wakes up but a little late – case study: Pets in Need Clinic
So, after much gnashing of teeth and chomping on the bit Facebook's CEO finally sees how he might use user data to make money. As Ive long said – advertising was never going to work well. Using members however as makeshift marketers, advocates and invertisers does work. That's exactly what Zuckerberg has finally realized – many months of course after companies have been using Facebook for this exact purpose. Now he plans on charging for access and establishing user groups of like minded members. My thoughts are – it wont work – why? because those most innovative organizations are doing it already, why pay? A great example of the use of a Facebook strategy comes from a small company very close to my own heart. Henrietta Animal Hospital's CEO has been on Facebook for some time now. Recently she decided to act of the new Presidents call for help and established a cause called 'Pets in Need Clinic'. This cause related marketing campaign is aimed at helping those with pets that have recently been made redundant or have lost their homes as a result of the current climate. The aim – simply – to help people's pets who by no fault of their own are suddenly not getting the attention or care that they need. You can find the campaign on Facebook by searching for the Pets in Need Clinic. By spreading the word amongst her contacts the CEO Michelle Brownstein is using Facebook as a tool of cause marketing. In summary its a highly innovative, grass roots campaign that I feel passionately for. Its also a hug WIN for small organizations that don't have the budgets for large scale campaigns but still want to get their messages out.
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I have seen a number of these cause marketing sites. I belong to CICU who recently created a Facebook site for financial aid for college students. It is 600 plus members strong.
Where I have some questions with regards to Facebook is this- can a company LOOKING for paying clients leverage the exposure to gather leads? I think yes, if the company had a similiar site to Lab Rats in terms of a like-minded community. A place to show off our stuff, our character, alittle more self-disclosing than our website (if you have seen our website, we have character)!
Our company is relationship based. That means, we deliver excellent products and customer service in order to maintain our client base. We do little cold calling, but in this economy, we want to know what to do with not only maintaining our current base, but find new clients that will need us when they are ready.
That said, I think Facebook might be a suitable place to congregate around salient topics of interest to our paying clients (ie: ethnography, latest and great video market research,etc). But perhaps to update each other as well, ie: can see that Nan is traveling to San Diego next week to do a project about teen attitudes toward teeth whiteners.
What are the pros and cons to using Facebook for these reasons? How do you engage clients to spend a little time being a part of this research but client community? Reward system (free online qualitative bulletin board with every 15 logins?).What about confidentiality- can we talk about our accounts with each other, research objectives, case studies without violating any MRA ethical standard? I have a feeling FACEBOOK is worth pursuing on a number of fronts, but its not crystallized yet for me….