I recently attended the Kansas City Chapter of the American Marketing Association’s Annual Meeting featuring speaker Brad Keown of facebook.  Brad discussed the newfound strategies behind social networking and its integration into every demographic. During the seminar, Keown also answered questions regarding facebook’s phenomenal branding success, their place in popular culture, their role in viral marketing and their development of unique segmentation opportunities.

Having been involved with social networking since its inception in the early 2000s, I went into this seminar with a strong understanding of the topic and the marketplace.  And I still managed to leave with a few nuggets of valuable information.  My biggest takeaway wasn’t necessarily something totally new to me, but it did take hold with me more so than before.

Brad kept mentioning facebook’s core mission: to connect people and enable them to share information.  Connect and share.  Share and connect.  While this is facebook’s mission, this also is the mission of most marketers for their brand – to get consumers to connect with their brand and, newly desired, for them to share with it.  To respond to the intiation of a conversation.  So, if you would like consumers to connect and share with your brand, why not go to where 200 million consumers are doing just that?

It seems pretty easy, right?  Yes and no.  facebook pages are free.  And they are simple and cost-effective to create, but the trade-off is an increase in labor costs as maintaining a brand in the social media realm requires daily diligence.  And, as I always say – yes, even for something “cool and hip” -  you need a strategy.

To make it in the social media realm, brands have to take on a persona.  They must have a personality, a voice, likes, dislikes, hobbies, traits – they must be authentic, relevant and meaningful.  Humanization is the number one key to success.  If consumers think of your brand as human and that your company cares about them, they’ll want to be a part of it.

Brand personas have to be of value to motivate consumers to become fans.  facebook deals in social currency – people must get something that is of value to them to move them to become a fan.  Special offers?  News?  Interesting stories?  Exclusive content?

Brands must also continue the conversation that they initiate.  If you talk to consumers and (gasp) they talk back, don’t stop there.  Don’t ignore them.  That ruins the authenticity.  You are no longer meaningful to them – you only care about yourself.

In light of the current economy, marketers are being forced to focus on the bottom of the marketing funnel and abandon most brand awareness efforts.  Social media can deliver brand awareness and it appears cheap and easy.  It can be, but in order to be successful, be prepared for daily dedication, constant learning of a complex environment, and a solid strategy in order to be successful.  It’s not hard, you just can’t ’set it and forget it’.