Facebook messages are my generation's email. Sure, there are things you can't do with Facebook- back up or own your data, email people outside of the network, attach files, forward- but for casual communication, many people are willing to trade flexibility for convenience. Want to message your friend? Just type in their name. Link to a photo album, cool video, or blog, and they'll see a little preview. There's no spam, and you can be absolutely sure that the person sending you mail is who they say they are. Facebook messaging is a warm, fuzzy, fun version of email....at least until the happy-go-lucky kids sitting on giant Facebook groups realize that they can leverage what's potentially the world's most powerful online marketing platform.
Facebook groups are huge- the largest reach into the millions- and viral. Whether it's "We Hate the New Facebook Layout" or "Save Darfur" or procrastination, coming up with a title and a tiny bit of copy that touches the hearts of internet adolescents can create groups of tens of thousands in days.
What's are the implications for marketing? The biggest is that a facebook group has a channel to each user's Facebook inbox, a much more personal, friendly communications space than email. Within the walled garden of Facebook, our spam detectors are off; messages are fewer, get read more, and receive the benefit of the doubt. Furthermore, since groups are formed around particular themes, members self-select based on love for a cause, idea, or product, making it easy to sculpt messages to fit them.
That's not to say that a marketer can just pay a kid for his facebook group. One of the reasons we feel safe in the garden of Facebook is the real name culture, the idea that everyone is exactly who they say they are. Yes, it's possible to create a fake persona, but what's the point? Facebook is about connecting with people from real life online, and any person that can create a fake persona witty, exciting, or friendly enough to convince people to friend him would be better off just joining as himself. Because we know who is on the other end of the messages and links that pass through facebook, there's trust and accountability. If a marketer bought the six million member Guiness World Record group and sent them a message advertising an online casino, he'd get shut down pretty quickly- not only can users report a message as spam, but when messages are sent to large groups, the delivery is delayed a bit as facebook vets for obvious violations of its terms of service. Facebook groups are not simple mailing lists.
What if, though, someone had a little more brains in them? A girl named Yuri Campbell owns a 7,700 member "Tokyo Pride" group. What if she were to work with a club to arrange discount tickets to an event, requiring submitting an email address to get the discount? What if she were to send out a series of free newsletters over the messaging protocol, then weave in Japan-related products and events (using affiliate links)? What if she partnered with a company selling audio walking tours of Tokyo or seminars on how to pick up women in Asia, and sent out a series of Frank Kern-style squeeze messages, writing like an enthusiastic friend but building up the pressure until the readers can't resist buying?
I think there's a sweet spot where Facebook messages deliver content people want, fly under the spam radar, and effectively convert recipients to email/blog subscribers, or even right to customers. I'm not saying I'm looking forward to it, but when you have millions of people subscribed to thousands of what are funamentally mailing lists, someone's bound to figure out how to leverage them. It's not going to be long before the happy-go-lucky Canadian that owns the 2 million member 90's nostalgia group to realize that with a few smart partnerships and a little marketing training, he can make a healthy buck.
Actually, maybe not- the most effectiv e use of facebook groups will be people that own the biggest group in a meme, then leverage it right as the meme is peaking. 90's-boy might be able to sell a few t-shirts or harvest emails, but the real money is going to be watching for a new meme, getting a related group going with a quickness, and then immediately turning around and converting your members' interest into $$$. It should be interesting to see when this starts happening in large numbers, and whether Facebook or its community do anything in reaction.
