To maximize social marketing impact, brands should use Facebook ad products such as Pages, Ads and Sponsored Stories in concert, David Fischer, VP of advertising and global operations at Facebook, said during a keynote address at the ad:tech New York conference on Nov. 9.
“The sum of the parts is less than the whole. When you put all these pieces together, you actually get virality,” said Fischer.
Fischer said that when earlier this year Burberry promoted a new fragrance product on Facebook by giving away 250 million samples to its Facebook fans, the brand grew its fan base by 1.5 million consumers. Burberry’s Facebook page has a weekly reach of 39.8 million consumers based off of Burberry’s 8.5 million fans, but that reach fluctuates in accordance with the brand’s paid media spend on Facebook, Fischer said. He pointed to Sponsored Stories as an example of paid media that can be shared by a consumer’s Facebook friends and thereby compound in value as earned media.
The key opportunity for brands on Facebook, said Fischer, is the ability to broaden a marketing message’s reach and influence a consumer’s social graph.
“We know that when you reach out not just to your fans but to the friends of your fans, you get 81 times the distribution,” he said.
During a post-keynote Q&A session, Fischer said that brands “want to be publishing [to their Facebook page] a few times a week” to establish and maintain a cadence with consumers.
