Facebook Fanpages and the New Fanbox
One day while perusing profiles on Faebo (slang for Facebook), I stopped by a friend's profile just to give them a poke (a virtual wave) before moving on to see what interesting fanpages I might come upon. Lo and behold, I discovered a fanpage for Chocolate Chip Cookies with 1,330,661 fans! Their mission is stated as such, "To spread awareness of the joy chocolate chip cookies bring." Between reading the discussions about cookies and looking at photos (of which there are over five pages of chocolaty goodness), I caught myself wasting at least 15 minutes.
If you think this is a frivolous use of Facebook you're missing the ultimate outcome of the above example. All those chocolate chip cookie lovers gathered together to pay homage to the cookie translates to cold, hard cash for advertisers and cookie companies by allowing links to offer coupons, recipes, and anything to do with chocolate chip cookies that the fans may jump on. Who could resist a coupon for a box of cookies? It’s perfect engagement marketing – connect with your fans, make them offers they can’t refuse, have them talk about it, spread it around the ‘net, share it with their friends – it's a virtual gold mine!
