On the other hand, focus of the article, “Big Brands Like Facebook, But They Don’t Like Paying,” (November 2, 2011, non-subscribers may need to click here) describes a business model challenge for Facebook.  The company’s $70 billion market value is based on the idea that the social network giant will produce revenues and profits — largely from selling targeted ads on the site.  Big brands love the eyeballs their Facebook fan pages attract, but those pages cost little to produce and generate no revenue for Facebook.  And many firms, like Ford, are spending for other media — in part to drive customers to Facebook.  While Americans spend 15% of their online time on Facebook, the social network giant only attracts 6.4% of all online advertising.  The video below interviews with the author of the WSJ article.

The article has insights for teaching about advertising, media selection, and social media.

No one is quite sure where this is going, but many consumers are already clicking the Facebook “Like” button on their favorite brands — or maybe mentioning in a post a recent  purchase of the brand.  Now it seems that Facebook will mention this ads targeting that customer’s friends.  So for example, if I “Like” a brand like Ikea on my Facebook page, an ad could appear on my friends pages that mentions “Joe (and perhaps more of their friends) Likes Ikea.”  In theory, knowing that Joe likes Ikea may make the store more appealing to my friends. This short article at Fast Company suggest that Facebook’s sponsored stories work – see “Facebook Sponsored Stories Performing 2 Times Better Than Standard Ads” (July 15, 2011).

Why could it work?  Because Facebook users are trusting people.  There is evidence that social networks foster trust.  You can read more about it in another Fast Company article, “Digital Oxytocin:  How Trust Keeps Facebook, Twitter Humming” (July 18, 2011).

These short articles epitomize one of the original motivations for Teach the 4 Ps – how can we keep our customers up-to-date when books only publish every few years.  So many new things are happening in marketing — so the blog is designed, in part, to help you stay current.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

Yikes, lots of stuff here.  The Sheryl Sandberg story in BusinessWeek provides a neat profile of the COO and gets you up to date on some Facebook initiatives — like advertising and whether the firm should enter China.  The more interesting issue is the ethical lapse by Facebook.  It also makes you wonder about a PR firm that would take on (or maybe even suggest) such a tactic.  Neither looks very good here.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

Great scenario to use to discuss ethics in class.  How does a PR firm – even a big, well-known firm like Burson-Marsteller say no to Facebook?

The article, “Toys “R” Us unveils multichannel mobile CRM tactics” (Mobile Commerce Daily, September 9, 2010) offers a good example of integrated marketing communications that utilizes a variety of new media in a foreign country.  One element of the campaign is an iPhone app — the video below shows how that works.