Facebook Effective Marketing Modem

Pulse

oi-Staff

Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 10:35

Facebook is coming up to be a very useful modem for marketing. And what's making it happen is its fan page module. Says a study.

The new research from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business suggests that the social networking site is an effective social marketing tool that supports word-of-mouth marketing and customer loyalty significantly.

Utpal Dholakia, associate professor of management at the institute, and Emily Durham, a Jones School alumna and founder of Restaurant Connections, in their article, "How Effective is Facebook Marketing?" pen down the advantages of the new form of marketing.

A survey of more than 1,700 respondents over a three-month period, concluded that compared with typical Dessert Gallery customers, the company's Facebook fans were more active.

The company's Facebook fans had made 36 percent more visits to DG's stores each month and 14 percent had higher emotional attachment to the DG brand. Thus proving it as a good marketing platform.

Dholakia said: "We must be cautious in interpreting the study's results. The fact that only about 5 percent of the firm's 13,000 customers became Facebook fans within three months indicates that Facebook fan pages may work best as niche marketing programs targeted to customers who regularly use Facebook ".

He suggests that Social-media marketing must be employed judiciously with other types of marketing programs.

The study has been published in the March issue of the Harvard Business Review.