My college-age son says that social networking is like a party: it’s over when the adults show up. But if he was horrified when I tried to “friend” him, he’ll be equally appalled at the latest news. 1-800-Flowers.com has launched a Facebook store. I personally think it’s thrilling (yes, I know, I must lead a dull life). Thrilling marketing that is. It’s the first time an actual shop has been set up on any social networking site. The choice of platform also has great symmetry. What do you give friends and family? Flowers, of course.
1-800-Flowers.com was the first marketer to use a toll free number in their brand name and now they are first with a store on Facebook, too. They were also the first merchant on AOL. They already launched applications on Blackberry and iPhone so this next step makes sense. Other companies launch products on Facebook, of course. Just this week, Fisher-Price announced that they developed a Facebook app to introduce their new product, Elmo Tickle Hands. But no actual purchasing takes place, their marketing campaign is a gifting mechanism designed to go viral. There are about 300,000 companies with fan pages on Facebook so you can bet others will follow this lead from 1-800-Flowers.com. (By the way, be sure to use the hyphens when you search Facebook or you might net zero results.)
Last week, Wetpaint and the Altimeter Group released a report announcing that companies with the highest level of social media activity increased revenue by 18 percent in the last 12 months, while companies that were the least active saw a 6 percent drop in sales. Email marketing links to a company’s Facebook and Twitter pages have increased, with Twitter slightly outpacing Facebook. Time will tell if Twitter eclipses Facebook but for now, one thing is sure. Social media marketing is expanding. Any company not utilizing it today is not tending to their business. Nurture your brand through fan pages and tweets and watch your business grow.
