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    500 Million Reasons to Focus on Facebook

    Posted Feb 25, 2011 by Chris Sinclair | Comments ( 2 ) | Filed in: Facebook, Politics, Social Media, Strategic Communications

    It’s pretty common knowledge that Facebook is the mack daddy of social media platforms for personal, business and organizational use.  With over 500 million worldwide users, not many will deny the sheer power and force of Facebook to spread a message.  Some are even predicting its future dominance in e-commerce.  

    Whether attempting to increase brand awareness, issues awareness or launch a political campaign, Facebook is—in our view---the most effective social media platform out there.  Here’s why.

    Where People Go Online
    The stats on Facebook are staggering.  Simply put, it’s the place to be online, and the proof is in the numbers. 

    • More than 500 million active users
    • 50% of their active users log on to Facebook on any given day
    • Average user has 130 friends
    • People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

    The Perfect Online Communications Tool
    Facebook is a great way to engage your customers, your advocates and supporters.  Since people are already using Facebook so much in their daily lives, it makes sense to meet them in this space.  While your supporters or customers are conversing with their friends, they can also share information about your brand, your issue, or your campaign---if running for office. 

    There are countless examples of how companies and organizations are using Facebook to promote their brand, new service or product.  NBC recently launched a campaign to introduce a new show on their network, and teamed up with Chipotle restaurant on Facebook.  We love their creative use of video and a coupon to engage thousands and raise awareness.

    Applications and Customization
    Facebook has gone out of its way to allow users to develop and execute unique, custom applications on a page.  From coupons and contests, to action centers and polls, the interface is user-friendly enough that pretty much anyone with FBML (the Facebook equivalent of HTML) knowledge can use it and be creative. 

    For advocacy purposes, we think Facebook is a great platform to launch a mini-campaign or micro campaign around issues.  And the beauty is you can really build an effective platform to educate potential supporters and allow them to take action. 

    For these reasons---and many others---our team here at Cornerstone Solutions thinks Facebook is a powerful, effective tool to engage others to promote issues, campaigns and brands.

    So what do you think?  What are some of the creative ways you might have seen others use Facebook to promote an issue, brand or campaign? 

     

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    Millennials are in Charge

    Posted Feb 22, 2011 by Chris Sinclair | Comments ( 4 ) | Filed in: Politics, Social Media, Strategic Communications


    Ever given much thought to how you communicate with Millennials?  This is the group of people commonly referred to as “Generation Y” (those between the ages of 15-30, with the average age of 28).

    If you are like most people your answer is:  Why should I even care about engaging this generation?  As voters, Millennials traditionally participate in low numbers.  And their participation in grassroots advocacy and the political decision-making process is even lower. 

    But this is changing.  And how you communicate with this generation is important because one day they will be in charge, they will be active voters, and they will dominate the discussion about brands, products, politicians, and issues.

    We recently ran across a fascinating study by Eldeman Public Relations and Strategy One, a research firm.  In their groundbreaking research, “The 8095 Exchange:  Millennials, Their Action, Surrounding Brands, and the Dynamics of Reverberation”  Eldeman concluded:

    “The fact is, as a group, Millennials are now in charge, spending more

    than any other generation and spending it in ways that a generation

    ago or even a few years ago was unimaginable. To understand

    Millennials is to begin to understand how to connect and interact

    with this extraordinary population. Marketers cannot afford to ignore

    Millennials. More importantly, none of us will succeed without them.”

    While the study targets businesses who want to understand this population segment, and how to market products and services to them, we here at Cornerstone Solutions would submit that organizations, opinion leaders and politicians must begin to engage Millennials---or at least begin to understand how they think and operate---especially in the political process.

    After all, we saw what this generation did in the 2008 presidential elections.  Will 2012 be any different?  We highly recommend downloading the Eldeman study, and also getting and reading a copy of Millennial Makeover, by Winograd and Hais.  After all, will any of us---whether in the brand world, or brand advocacy world---be able to, as Eldeman suggests, “succeed without them?”

    So what’s your plan or ideas for reaching this omnipresent population?    

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