Facebook Era, The: Tapping Online Social Networks to Market, Sell, and Innovate, Safari, 2nd Edition

Written by entrepreneur and speaker Clara Shih, who created the first business application on Facebook, The Facebook Era is a bestselling book about how companies can market, innovate, and grow their business on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It has been featured in top publications including The New York Times and is being used as a marketing textbook at academic institutions around the world including Harvard Business School. The Facebook Era explains the new consumer and buyer psychology behind Facebook and what it means for companies across their marketing, sales, customer service, recruiting, and R&D efforts. It includes a step-by-step guide for how everyone from the CEO down to the entry-level information worker can take steps to adapt and succeed in this new era. The 2nd Edition includes expanded coverage of Twitter and LinkedIn, dozens of new case studies, exclusive guest content provided by key industry thought leaders such as Charlene Li and Don Tapscott, as well as actionable takeaways and “to-do” lists at the end of every chapter. Author Clara Shih was named by Fast Company as one of the Most Influential Women in Technology in 2010.

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 LinkedIn  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 LinkedIn 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