Earlier this year, I picked up a copy of Marketing in the age of Google by Vanessa Fox, a renowned internet marketer and former Google employee. In the book Vanessa attempts to show how businesses develop a successful search engine marketing strategy, and how best to use the data provided by the search engines. Google certainly ushered in a new era of internet marketing, but I can’t help but feel like yet another era is upon us: Marketing in the age of Facebook.

What methods have you used to market on Facebook? What have you felt that has or hasn’t worked? I have some of my own thoughts that I would like to share:

Individual Profiles

Some hyper-active Facebook users use their own profiles to market to their friends. This works really well for anyone with a high level of name recognition. The downside is that you must first accept or receive a friend request from an individual in order to market to them.

There are many upsides to marketing through your individual profile page. By granting your users access to your profile page, you are giving them a glimpse into the life of you the individual. Putting a real face on a company has the potential to increase brand loyalty and trust. You are also giving your users another method of contacting you if they need customer service. To the user, this feels like a true one-on-one personal experience.

There are also a number of downsides to this. By granting customers access to your Facebook profile page you may be giving them more access to your personal life than you feel comfortable with. In many instances your users may contact you with customer support issues when they should be emailing your website or opening a support ticket. Many of these privacy issues can be controlled in the Facebook settings. For example, you can close off a user’s access to your wall or shut down the ability of a reader to send you messages. Of course, by doing so are cutting down some of the personal contact with your user, and thus are defeating much of the purpose of marketing to them on Facebook.

I believe there’s a better way for individuals to market on Facebook while maintaining a separation from their personal and professional lives: Facebook Fan Pages

Facebook Fan Pages

These pages are similar in function to the profile pages; however, they are much easier to market themselves. Unlike profiles, there is no need to become a friend of a fan page before you can see its pictures or content. All you have to do is click on the “like” button. Users can browse the profiles or easily become a fan of such personalities as Tom "durrrr" Dwan, US President Barack Obama and even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Anyone can follow them on Facebook with a single click.

Do you have a Facebook fan page for your brand? Check out the Facebook fan page of Your Poker Cash for what we believe is a good example of well-executed social media marketing.

Paid Advertising

Facebook also offers the classic paid advertising model but with a twist. Companies are given the option to simply advertise their brands on Facebook or advertise their Facebook Fan page. Which is better? Well, that depends entirely on your goals. Are you looking to drive traffic to your company’s website or are you looking to build up your Facebook fan base? That’s the decision you have to ask yourself when creating an ad campaign with Facebook.

What is the biggest upside in marketing on Facebook versus Google? User engagement. Facebook fan pages give you an opportunity to interact with your fans in a public forum alongside your advertisements. You can easily put a face and name to your brand. In my next post I will discuss some of the best practices associated with user engagement and Facebook fan pages.

Cheers!