Some Brands on Facebook Get It Wrong
Published by Rodney Rumford January 2nd, 2008 in Branding, Facebook, Facebook Marketing.We have been looking at trends occurring on facebook for brands and how they can engage with applications. From a facebook application perspective many brands are somewhat missing the mark on how to create engaging applications that users will actually use & share on facebook.
Rule Number One: Brands Need To Understand the Facebook Ecosystem & Why Applications Are Successful.
This is not for the faint hearted or closed minded. Don’t think that you can create an application and it will spread like wildfire. Nothing could be further from the truth if the application is executed improperly. I applaud companies that choose to engage in social networks like facebook. It can be very smart and effective branding if done properly.
Don’t try this out as an experiment with a company that has not done this before on facebook. The results could be less than desired.
As an example I will call out the Sony Snowglobes application. This is obviously a branding exercise to get the Sony name into facebook. Brilliant idea. Terrible execution. They totally miss the point of why applications work on facebook and how to leverage and penetrate the social graph. The execution is wrong on so many levels. This app appears to have been built by an ad agency by the name of Nexum Creative.
The application has been live for 1 month and has ~4500 installs, and ~45 daily active users. That is a 1% engagement rate. These are horrific stats for an application that is 1 month old and was launched at the beginning of the holiday season.
Here is what is right about the Sony Snowglobes application:
* Creative idea
* Allows self expression and customization
* Visually exciting
* Uses notifications & mini-feed correctly
Here is what is wrong with the Sony Snowglobes application:
* No tabbed navigation
* No clear way to invite friends (I can’t believe they missed that!)
* It does not remember that I created a globe (very frustrating)
* After i create and send a globe i can’t navigate anywhere else (like to make a new one)
* No way to see which snowglobes my friends have created
* Text instructions are too long.
* Only allows for Christmas snowglobes. Too short of a product lifecycle window
* It makes me take an extra step to add the snowglobe to my profile page
* They promote 3 other apps in a very visually dominating way on the homepage (none of which have any success)
* The about page does not even have an image of what the app does. DUH!
* The profile page does not have messaging that makes we want to add the app.
* No one from Sony or their ad agency has responded to any of the reviews written on the applications wall.
I could go on and add 5 more ways to make the app more successful, but I won’t. Just hire a company that truly understands the psychology behind what it takes to make successful, viral and engaging applications for facebook. This app could be huge after several iterations.
What are your thoughts?
Technorati Tags: facebook, sony, brands
8 Responses to “Some Brands on Facebook Get It Wrong”
- 1 Trackback on Jan 2nd, 2008 at 6:42 am
- 2 Trackback on Jan 8th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I installed it when it appeared and de-installed it about 10 mins later. I was attracted to it by the picture above, but the result of my own sticking the bits and pieces was nowhere near that. I use Facebook for business and surely Sony could have used some graphic arts whizkid to help me produce something better than what a 5-yr old produces with decals!
Great post. I write explicitly about widget analytics and am continuously trying to expand my knowledge on FB Apps and how they traverse through FB. Your points on executing a good widget seeding strategy are key. It is interesting how some of the larger corps are just starting to fire on all cylinders for building FB apps (clearly not the case on this one).
Jodi
I agree … it is vitally important to work with agencies that actually understand the potential of a community/medium. As you point out, some of the failings of the application are social media basics … but it seems that, like many brands and initiatives, they simply got lost in the execution without a compelling story to tell.
If you have to dig into the application to see the brand story or if you cannot allow the community to tell their own stories, then you are missing out on the promise of social media.
I am a facebook developer, and first want to say Rodney, I love your posts. Good points. Quickly, I noticed a typo, or a wrong calculation. It says >1% engagement, it should be >10%, right? 450/45 = 10?
Gavin,
It should have been 4500 installs. Still a 1% engagement rate.
Thanks for catching that typo.
I install and use these applications. I thought they are very well developed and designed….some comments are true but alot of them are very inclined.
”Just hire a company that truly understands the psychology behind what it takes to make successful, viral and engaging applications for facebook.”
I thought that you only want to make this (gravitationalmedia) companies adv.