The next phase of Facebook

It’s no longer a ‘personal’ network. It’s now also about business. By June this year, Facebook had crossed 1.8 billion active users, going by publicly available figures. But what was once The Social Network has undergone much evolution during the 10+ years it has been in existence.

When the competitive landscape broadened to include Twitter and newer platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, survival and scale became critical to all the players. Facebook began promoting “Facebook for Business” very early on, besides getting busy with acquisitions that ensured that users of other applications like Whatsapp converted to its own platform.

Everyone’s on it For businesses, there emerged a different — and relatively cheaper — way to connect with consumers. Traditional media could now be used more meaningfully rather than all out and rampantly. Beginning 2009, many brands in India began familiarising themselves with how to leverage Facebook for business and many of them started their own ‘pages’. It seems the ones that learned and watched and experimented have reaped rewards.

Entertainment brand Sony MAX has fans congregating on two pages — one for brand Sony MAX and the other for Sony MAX2. The two channels are positioned differently. Sony MAX, according to the brand, caters to lovers of the ‘tongue-in-cheek’ and ‘edgy’ while Sony MAX2 is centred on ‘Bringing Back Movies’ (one of its early campaigns).

“We’ve seen exponential growth in the last two years on our Facebook pages. We started early, in 2009 or 2010, but in 2012 we started thinking more strategically around making our Facebook pages a brand tool,” shares Vaishali Sharma, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Sony MAX and MAX2.

Sony MAX now has more than 35 lakh fans on Facebook and the MAX2 page launched a year ago has crossed 2.3 lakh in follower count.

Meanwhile, Zippo, a ‘funky’ lighter brand, has spent the last six years in India looking to forge stronger ties with younger consumers. It bets big on Facebook to activate many of its campaigns. Zippo India’s partnership with India Bike Week led to contests like The Flame of Freedom, Zippo Trivia & the National Geographic photo contest. Such initiatives are magnets for consumers.

“Our interactions on Facebook help us gain valuable consumer insight on new designs, products, and our levels of service both online and off. We’re also able to regularly introduce new products into the market, creating a desire for the item before it’s available worldwide,” explains Mollie Kinney, Social Media Specialist, Zippo Manufacturing Company. Zippo has more than one million fans on Facebook worldwide.

Figure it out, Facebook But whether you sell television content or a lighter, through the growth of mobile devices and connectivity in India, a platform like Facebook concentrates people around brands in ways older media just cannot. But with the platform looking at increasing its revenues from brands, Facebook has not been easy to navigate through the years. The final assessment of the platform, at this point in time, is mixed.

“Facebook was doing a better job earlier than they are now,” says Samar Singh Shekhawat, Senior Vice President – Marketing, United Breweries. His opinion is one that Sony MAX’s Vaishali Sharma also shares.

“I’m not sure Facebook knows who they are right now… it’s probably been a struggle for them to figure out how to evolve and deal with the current landscape,” Shekhawat continues.

Zippo’s Mollie Kinney articulates what has been one of the biggest challenges for brands on Facebook: “The many algorithm changes Facebook has implemented over the years have made it increasingly difficult to reach our fans. Our reach and engagement have dramatically dropped since Facebook has made these changes.

“We often hear from fans that they missed time-sensitive posts. Though we do sponsor posts, we try to do so sparingly, because they tend to be disruptive and often irrelevant to some audiences.”

Regardless of reports of users moving away from the platform to The Other Social Network, Twitter, Facebook has deftly managed to maintain and grow mindshare for itself. But it’s no longer a song and dance for the platform nor the brands that use it. For both sides to see advantages, something’s got to give.

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