Selling status updates..

jrochie

Hi guys!

I was chatting to a guy during the week and Facebook came up. I mentioned that I have a profile with over 3000 friends that is growing daily. Basically its separate to my personal account and its the name of a well known festival. I opened it about 6 months ago as a type of experiment but it kept going, and I'm getting at least 10 friend request a day!

I don't really use it for much but I do post links to some of the Business pages I manage on it just to get it to a few more eyeballs and its pretty targeted as well.

Well back to the point, this guy suggested that I offer connected business the chance to advertise on the page. At first I thought it was a silly idea but thinking about it I find it kinda intriguing. Has anyone ever seen this done before? I'm only starting to look into it now and it may even be banned by Facebook ( I've not checked yet ) but since it is quite targeted it might work?

One major problem i could foresee with it if i was to even attempt it is I actually have absolutely no connection with the festival in question!

Wile E. Coyote

I'm pretty sure Facebook won't allow you to sell advertising on their site and get nothing in return. Also I'm pretty sure it would be illegal for you to advertise under the festival name if you have no link to it.

It would be like me opening a Facebook page in the name of Boards.ie and selling the advertising space. I guarantee it wouldn't be long before the lads here had me shut down.

Paparazzo

I remember liking a page ages ago, then they started using their status updates for ads (or it could have been posting ads on their wall and it notified all their fans), but I immediately unliked it. I would imagine many others did too. It's basically spamming someones facebook page!

iamstop

ha, this will be the beginning of the end of facebook, remember myspace? lol

BrianD

jrochie wrote: »

Hi guys!

I was chatting to a guy during the week and Facebook came up. I mentioned that I have a profile with over 3000 friends that is growing daily. Basically its separate to my personal account and its the name of a well known festival. I opened it about 6 months ago as a type of experiment but it kept going, and I'm getting at least 10 friend request a day!

I don't really use it for much but I do post links to some of the Business pages I manage on it just to get it to a few more eyeballs and its pretty targeted as well.

Well back to the point, this guy suggested that I offer connected business the chance to advertise on the page. At first I thought it was a silly idea but thinking about it I find it kinda intriguing. Has anyone ever seen this done before? I'm only starting to look into it now and it may even be banned by Facebook ( I've not checked yet ) but since it is quite targeted it might work?

One major problem i could foresee with it if i was to even attempt it is I actually have absolutely no connection with the festival in question!

Firstly, if you are using a personal profile for business activities then you run the risk of it being deleted by FB. They are weeding out these profiles and it only takes one person to report you to put you top of the deletion list.

If you are passing yourself off as a well known festival then you're likely to have the wrath of FB and the festival promoter so I'd watch your step. Remember your 10 friends a day are probably joining in error. This is a deceptive practice and could land you in hot water.

One of the golden rules of Facebook is no "hard selling" and this is what all major brands do - even though their ultimate goal is to make you buy more of their products.

People are savvy, if they see a message flogging insurance on what should be a festival site then they'll be hitting the unlike button or at best the hide button.

I presume your advertisers will want to see the stats on impressions and so on.

Would your page be the "... is in Kildare not Dublin" page that I've seen on FB.

jrochie

hey again cheers for the replies.

I've been thinking about this since i put up the last message thought of a few different problems with this, not including the ones ye all mentioned. Definately not a good idea!

No thats not the profile at all, its for a small but well known festival. Just to add to the list of reasons this would be a bad idea, apart from the obvious trouble it would cause me, there would be no justification for someone to pay to advert on it, as they could simply post on the wall and it would be seen by a large number of people anyway!

Apologies for the dumba$$ comment!

Kent Brockman

With that many fans you could probably arrange to allow people post info re their event/product on your wall in return for you being allowed to do the same on theirs. Or swap recommendations to each others fans/friends (if you had something to advertise or wanted more exposure)