I previously wrote a blog post in which I was skeptical of Facebook’s ability to acquire new customers. Rather, I thought Facebook was a pure retention and loyalty play.
Based on last night’s DMA 2011 Keynote, Facebook is fine tuning its pitch to demonstrate an ability to acquire new customers and to help businesses grow.
Grady Burnett (who really wants you to know he played tennis at Michigan), Vice President of Global Marketing Solutions for Facebook made three important points:
*The new Sponsored Stories helps companies tap into its loyalist to recommend and sell. In fact research shows that consumers are 4X more likely to purchase from a company that they see a friend endorsing
*He unveiled new Page Insights which provide better tracking (sounds vaguely like ROI to me)
*Finally, he showed a series of case studies which demonstrated the power of Facebook to drive new customers for brands like 1-800-Flowers and Levis.
So, was I wrong originally or just prescient?”