The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Market, Sell, and Innovate Book

Foreword xi

Acknowledgments xiii

About the Author xvi

Introduction 1

Part I Why Social Networking Matters for Business

1 The Fourth Revolution 11

Today's Social Customer 14

Facebook Versus Twitter and Linkedln 17

Why Facebook Won 20

Google Buzz 21

Private Social Networks 22

Social Network Platforms 23

A Promising New Era 29

2 The New Social Norms 31

Identity, Sharing, and Influence on the Social Web 31

The Importance of Being Customer-Centric 40

Transitive Trust 42

3 How Relationships and Social Capital Are Changing 45

What is Social Capital? 46

New Modes of Communication on the Social Web 48

The Power of Weak Ties 50

Supplementing Offline Networking with Online Interactions 56

The Flattening Effect 58

Creating New Value from Network Effects 58

Part II Social Networking Across Your Organization

4 Sales in the Facebook Era 67

Transforming the Sales Cycle 69

Social CRM 85

5 Customer Service in the Facebook Era 91

Thinking Holistically About the Customer Experience 92

Five Steps to Successful Social Customer Service 95

Calculating Your Cost Savings 105

6 Marketing in the Facebook Era 109

The New Rules of Marketing 110

Hypertargeting 111

Social Distribution and Word-of-Mouth 118

Engagement is King 126

Challenges and Limitations 131

7 Innovation and Collaboration in the Facebook Era 135

Concept Generation 136

Prototyping 145

Commercial Implementation 148

Continual Iteration 153

8 Recruiting in the Facebook Era 159

Which Social Network is Best for Recruiting? 160

Sourcing and Screening Candidates 164

Candidate References 171

Employer and Recruiter Reputation 173

Keeping in Touch 174

Advice for Candidates 177

Be Aware of Employee Poaching 178

Part III Step-by-Step Guide to Social Networking for Business

9 How To: Develop Your Facebook Era Plan and Metrics 183

Listening First 183

Establishing the Business Objectives 184

Defining Your Metrics 187

Mobilizing the Team 190

Framing Your Strategy in Terms of the Customer 192

Getting Started on Facebook and Twitter 192

10 How To: Build and Manage Relationships on the Social Web 197

Personal Versus Professional Identity 197

Interacting on Facebook and Twitter 202

Networking on the Social Web 208

Connecting with New People 210

11 How To: Engage Customers with Facebook Pages and Twitter 215

Overview of Twitter and Facebook Pages 217

Setting Up Your Facebook Page 222

Getting (and Keeping) Fans 228

Advanced Best Practices 235

The Best of Twitter and Facebook Pages 244

12 How To: Advertise and Promote on the Social Web 251

Building Your Linkedln DirectAds Campaign 252

Creating Your Facebook Ad Campaign 258

Which Attributes Should You Hypertarget On? 266

Selecting Your Ad Creative and Call to Action 267

Tying Back to Your Goals 268

Engagement Ads 270

Twitter's Promoted Tweets 275

Part IV Social Networking Strategy

13 Advice for Small Business 279

1 Start Small 279

2 Consider Using Your Personal Profile Instead of a Facebook Page 281

3 Take Advantage of Location Targeting and Geolocation 282

4 Build Community 283

5 Build Your Sphere of Influence 284

6 Consider Ditching Your Web Site 285

7 Have a Personality 288

8 Do Some Networking 288

9 Be Smart About Your Time 289

10 Get Help 290

14 Advice for Nonprofits, Healthcare, Education, and Political Campaigns 293

Nonprofits 293

Healthcare 299

Education 302

Political Campaigns 306

15 Corporate Governance, Strategy, and Implementation 313

Social Media Culture 313

Social Media Policy and Processes 318

Social Systems and Technologies 327

16 The Future of Social Business 333

Social, Personalized, and Real Time 334

The ROI of the Social Web 335

Trends in the Social Web 335

Final Remarks 337

Index 339