Operating in a similar vein to sites such as YouTube and MySpace, Facebook provides advertisers and promoters the ability to see their information go “viral.” This means one user becomes a fan and in doing so tells their entire network of friends about a product, service or website. These friends, in turn, tell their friends, essentially providing a tremendous boost with word of mouth advertising.
Courtesy of Facebook pages and the simple “like” button displayed on all ads, the viral potential on this site is amazing. If you are lucky enough to have your ads or information go viral, you can gain a number of instant benefits that money just cannot buy. Since this form of advertising is word-of-mouth, friends of friends tend to see it as genuine and trustworthy.
Facebook is actually designed to lend itself to viral marketing campaigns. When one user clicks on the “like” button for an ad or joins a page, that user’s friends can see the action on their own news feeds. This, in turn, can pique that user’s friends’ curiosity and entice them to check out the link personally. If those people choose to join a fan page or decide to “like” an ad, all their friends can see that action and the process repeats itself on a scale that is potentially much, much larger.
If your ads or information manage to “go viral” on Facebook, your potential for incoming traffic and sales can go through the roof. This is especially so if you have taken the time to complement advertising efforts with a fan page that boasts direct links to your business website.
All the benefits of good old fashion word-of-mouth advertising are alive and well on the Internet and can be found on Facebook if you play your cards right.
Facebook’s social networking features make it stand out as a tremendous asset to businesses. This can be the case whether they advertise or not, but coupling the two is often the best strategy to get your marketing on Facebook to go Viral!
