The two major changes are;

1) No need for prior written Facebook approval to administer a promotion on Facebook.

This makes life for brands much easier. According to Wildfire Blog:

“Previously, in order to administer a promotion inside of Facebook, you had to either obtain explicit approval from a Facebook representative, or else run your promotion in two parts by  ”publicizing” it in a tab on Facebook but “administering” it (collecting submissions or entries, conducting the drawing, judging winning entries, or notifying winners) off of Facebook. But now, there is no need to obtain approval to administer the entire promotion inside of Facebook, so users participating in your promotions will remain inside of the Facebook environment by default throughout the entire process flow of the promotion (and do not need to be taken to microsite to submit their data). This is great news because generally promotions that are run entirely in Facebook have better conversions (i.e. higher entry rates) and higher rates of sharing (via newsfeeds and friend invites) than those that are only publicized in Facebook but administered via a microsite.”

2) No need for a minimum media spending to support the promotion.

This is also a good news for brands. It is now easier for marketing people to get their promotion campaign approved internally and gives the ability to plan smaller size / focused test promotions..

But keep in mind that all promotions are still subject to Facebook Promotion Guidelines and the following types of promotions are still not allowed:

See AllFacebook article:  Facebook Promotions No Longer Need Explicit Approval From Facebook

1) Integrate Facebook Like button to your product description page

This is a must for any e-Commerce site. It is easy to implement, and an instant win for any ecommerce site. Also, it is the most used tactic already on eCommerce sites.

2) Advertise on Facebook to drive traffic directly to your product pages

Paid advertising on Social media is often mixed with social media activities. However, it is a totally different discipline and is much easier to set up and run than any social media activity. However, remember following four advise when advertising on Facebook;

• Don’t let your online media planner run static / boring advertising on this media. Facebook advertising should be managed in savvy hands who have a good understanding on advertising on Facebook
• You should understand that the real cost on Facebook advertising doesn’t lie on the amounts paid to the media, but costs are in managing the campaigns in the required detail with a savvy team
• Automated solutions can help you reduce costs, but don’t try to lower your managing budget with automated solutions and cut on headcount for managing the campaigns, because automated solutions when not audited can cause much more harm than help
• Manage product launches differently than your everyday campaigns; don’t fall into the basic mistake of stopping or modifying everyday campaigns during product launches. Also keep in mind that during a product launch a social media activity backed with advertising is much more effective than just advertising on social media

3) Use Facebook Login for your e-Commerce site

Facebook Login is a great way to authenticate people on your eCommerce site. This functionality does not only enable the easy sharing of thoughts and likes on your products, but is also a great win if you want to increase your user base fast. It is an ease of use for visitors in order to quickly login to your site in one click.

4) Build your eCommerce application on Facebook

Companies are planning to develop their own applications on Facebook. An e-Commerce application on Facebook has three major advantages,

• Presence: Your customer is already there (They don’t come to your web site every day)
• Ease of use: There is an opportunity to increase ease of you on two dimensions; first the real ease of use by making it simple to shop, second the perceived ease of use by just being on Facebook
• Trust: People will have less trust issues on Facebook domain than your company-specific domain to share their information with you

These three advantages will increase your potential buyers, since there is a target population who find it difficult to shop on different sites or are still afraid to shop online from e-commerce sites. For any online retailer with serious online revenue eCommerce application on Facebook is a great way to increase sales.

If you have not already applied social commerce tactics for your company or are resisting social commerce reality, please see the data below. Both are recent (June, 2010) survey results of US online marketers on Social Plug-ins & Social Commerce plans.

1) Facebook Social Plug-ins implemented by online marketers
2) Facebook Social Commerce Plans for online marketers

Top 10 Marketing Events

Oh, did you say, there are 12 top events on the list?

Yes, I gave you two bonuses (in case you can not make it to the original ten top events). Also do not forget, these events are a good opportunity to meet likeminded “Radical Marketer”s.

1. You shall believe in “web centric integrated marketing” and know it is the right way of new, “radical” marketing.
2. You shall know that “Marketing cannot be left to Marketers only“. Marketing and strategy should be hand in hand, and the top management (or the top brains of the corporation) should be very close to the strategic marketing issues.
3. You shall not just seek for “Market Shares” but “Soul Shares“.
4. You shall see that “Marketing is not a cost center, but a profit center“.

Martin Sorrell, chief executive officer of WPP Group was on Charlie Rose on My 21st for the first time. It is a show worth watching. You can find some of my quick notes from the interview below;

Martin Sorrell quotes;

CMOs are mostly old people, and change is the last thing they have in mind.

Currently, digital is 25% of our business (& emerging markets is 27% of our business)

Traditional look to advertising: 33% TV, 33% Print, 33% Other media

Now, balance is shifting: 25% TV, 25% Print, 25% Digital, 25% Other media

In a few years there will be a big change: within couple years (it will be fairly quick), all media is becomming digital

Listening to this interview one question came to my mind; Can you spot me one Turkish CMO who spents 25% in digital?

Social Media’s (&social marketing’s) effect on Web Marketing can be considered as being similar to Web’s effect on marketing.

Social Marketing is to Web Marketing,

what Web was to Marketing!

The effect is total change, a need for a different mindset, different organization and people with different skills.

You can see the full article below;

“Social media is much more than a tactic. The more you participate in social media and learn what can be gleaned, you will soon realize its potential. Rich, valuable and instantaneous feedback from your audience. Lots of opportunity to conduct primary research. A wealth of information from online discussions as informative as the very best focus groups.”

via Ad Agencies Please Know That Social Media is Not a Tactic « FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media.

via Why online creative stinks so badly – iMediaConnection.com.

Eric Picard has the right vision on interactive ads. Even a pure branding campaign should have these options. We are trying to explain this to our customers as well. However, I believe the industry and the brand managers are slow in understanding these dynamics.

“The entire marketing infrastructure and the economy is going to be diminished.” by David Poltrack of CBS is a correct statement, and the marketing economy is moving ahead wheater the marketers like it or not.