Conversation Starters: Facebook

Last summer I started a MySpace account and a Facebook account. My goal was to experiment with these social networking services to promote HRmarketer.com and my children's book.

Less than 15 minutes after I registered with MySpace I was contacted by an attractive young woman wanting to be my "friend". That pretty much answered the question about how viable MySpace was going to be for me.

After that experience I just let my Facebook account sit, incomplete, with no intention of ever using it.

My how things have changed. I can't stay away from my account today and everyday I'm connecting with friends, family and business contacts and evangelizing HRmarketer.com and SeniorCareMarketer.com and my personal interests as well.

Facebook has grown exponentially over the past 12 months, and while there is still debate over whether or not Zuckerberg and company can create a profitable long-term business model, HR suppliers can use Facebook to promote your organizations.

When you look at "the race to mass market chart" from the recent Fortune article, it's amazing how quickly Facebook (and social networking in general) has been embraced by the market. And the biggest growing demographic now is the 30-year-old+ group.

Here are the 10 things marketers and PR pros in the HR marketplace need to know about Facebook:

This is just the beginning and the social media marketing and PR power that Facebook will continue to yield is boundless. As I wrote in my Twitter post, we're working on a new eBook tentatively titled "Conversation Starters" that's all about social media marketing and social networking for the HR space, and Facebook will definitely be a part of that.

Our goal is to keep it simple, succinct and strategic for you all. There is already a butt-load (yes, I actually wrote butt-load yet again) of best practices information on the street about Facebook and other social media services, like latest one I found from The Advance Guard called About Face. There's also the Facebook Pages Insider's Guide and the Why Facebook blog.

There are a wealth of opportunities for marketing and PR on Facebook, and many applications to enhance ones' personal profile and business page – far too many to go into detail here. Spend some time searching for businesses similar to yours and visit their pages to see what kind of information, applications, events, etc. they include and how they seem to be utilized by fans. Browse through the applications on Facebook to see if any would be useful or beneficial to your fans. The help section on Facebook can answer many questions you may have and assist you in discovering opportunities you may not have been aware of.

But most importantly, be trustworthy and transparent in your networking, marketing and PR – be a part of the HR marketplace conversation.

Friend me and let's get to networking! (It doesn't matter that friend isn't a verb. It is in Facebook.)

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)




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