Why would you want these people to crowdsource for you? Look at these. Teenagers. abandoned. hippies!

Okay, that’s sarcasm.

I’ve really liked the idea of ​​using other properties for marketing for a while now. I really got into a Twitter kick last year, and I’m still active. I have played with all the social bookmarking, social voting, image networks and tagging sites. I have recently been working with my company on a social media marketing offering through Facebook. It’s not a new concept, but it is. It’s still very fluid and worth exploring. Many companies turn their backs on him. Yes, but we are used to that.

Remember when we used to try to convince CMOs to let us post on the forums? They were concerned about negative responses (at the expense of positive responses). Then we had to convince the CMOs that blogging was good! We often got the thumbs up as long as we had a dedicated moderator to weed out the negative stuff. I admitted it: I had that job once. But somewhere, thanks in part to slow adoption by major brands like Dell, Zappos, and Amazon, publicly posted negative reviews went uncensored. When they were censored, there would be a public outcry. Progressive CMOs were more concerned about that outcry than the negative posts on their domains. Good call. If products can stand on their own, then let social media prove it to you. Now we are talking about something truly valid.

The social media space has really evolved in the past year. The community noted that companies made these efforts and assumed these risks. Companies were welcomed by it. Fans and supporters became as loyal as NASCAR fans to their brands. And even though the number is small, their presence was very enlightening.

So here I am, diving headfirst into Facebook marketing and finding myself excited about the opportunity to ride a wave that will either dissolve before it reaches the shore or crash into waterfront property like a tsunami. My only regret is that I wish I had had the foresight to jump sooner. Actually, what I regret is that more companies still don’t have the perspective to launch now.

It’s a hard sell. I can completely relate to the owner of the business. It’s very similar to convincing a CMO to try creating a blog in 2006. By the time everyone was convinced, every company had one and none were being used properly. Noisy. But how do we convince CMOs that these teens, bums, and hippies are extremely important components of their business, and not just for their money? It’s officially a different world online now, and I’m afraid business is once again behind schedule. CMOs are reading all the trades, and “social media is where they are” articles, but they’re not sparking enough passion in CMOs to pick up all the Lego pieces and start building. How big does the explosion have to be this time?

But what about the content, the cross-channel implications? they’re huge. Perhaps Facebook marketing doesn’t seem to convey as much SEO value based on the structure of the Facebook platform, but SEO is much more than algorithms. is marketing is happy. You are helping search engines love your business, content, and value. Facebook (and the content it provides) means more than most people think. To me, that’s the hurdle you have to get over in the first place. With passion. It shows that it is rock and roll, yes, but it is not dangerous. it’s cultural It’s the next big thing from last year. Let’s get moving, before the crowd really moves!