As a marketer wishing to create a presence on Facebook, one is often faced with the decision of whether to create a Group or a Fan Page.

Before the design revamp earlier this year, Facebook Groups and Fan pages both had similar functionality and one big problem: they didn’t give people a reason to come back.

Once someone joined a group or became a fan, there wasn’t much to remind them to return for a visit.  This made the decision pretty much 50/50 for a marketer as one option had about the same pros and cons as the other.

Point: Team “Fan Page”
The Group vs. Fan Page game changed a few months ago when Facebook updated Fan page functionality to act more like a personal page.

Rather than having static content, fan page news updates and wall posts would be pushed out to fans’ newsfeeds and foster more organic word of mouth and engagement (see our previous entry on the benefits of a Fan Page). During this time, Groups stayed the same– stuck with limited functionality and passalong factor. The marketing choice became a lot easier: create a Fan Page to maximize participation.

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Yesterday, over a lunch meeting with some friends and media colleagues, we started getting a bit philosophical about social media marketing and how companies are not only beginning to embrace it, but how they’re budgeting, implementing, and integrating this type of media internally as part of their overall marketing strategy.

One of the questions that came up: 

Does a company really need senior level involvement or outside help to execute social media marketing, or can it be done internally by a team of interns?

Interesting question.  The short answer is, yes and yes.

In my opinion, the mistake many companies make in leaping into social media marketing is that it’s all about having a Twitter and Facebook page.  Well my friends, if this is all social media marketing means to you, by all means, have your interns go to town.  But to me, social media marketing is so much more than that.

Reaching your target audiences where they live online is much more than how you’re represented in social networks.  Tapping into the power of influencers, bloggers and taste makers who specialize in your cause or subject matter is something that is a bit of a talent, as there’s so much clutter and competition with getting messages and your call to action heard.  If that’s something your intern can do, more power to you.  However, sometimes it’s better to have a strategic game plan in targeting where you’re brand is represented, how consumers will engage, and the likelihood they will spread the word.

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Recently, the US Senate voted to end funding for the F-22 Raptor stealth fighters based on recommendations from the Defense Department.  This jet is the world’s costliest weapon and was designed in the 1980’s to combat a similar set of sneaky war planes the Soviet Union had in its arsenal.

At the time, it was clear that we needed to go head to head with our Soviet counterparts to ensure that our country stayed safe. They had planes, we had planes. They wore uniforms, we wore uniforms.  All was safe and secure in the world of high profile and high cost defense.

However, the world has changed drastically since then.  The Soviet Union no longer exists and while there are still well-gunned challengers in the world, the biggest threat to our national security comes from people without uniforms or weapons commonplace in the battlefields of the past. These new enemies are crafty and covert, utilizing methods that require a more surgical approach than our F-22 bombers can deliver.

So, how does this apply to the current state of marketing?

Well, before social media took off in the US, marketers used traditional advertising vehicles to get the word out.  Many of these options, like TV, radio and print, provided great reach and enabled an advertiser to increase brand awareness at a fairly significant cost.

The ability to connect with a single customer in a meaningful way outside the store, a call center, or direct mail was just not possible.  This would be the F-22 phase of advertising, as we all used pretty big guns to hit a target we might not know that much about.

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Today’s entry is brought to us by our guest blogger, AV Flox, editor of the hugely popular social media blog OMGOMGOMFG.com.

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Once upon a time, a woman complained about a job offer on her Twitter account and earned the scorn and ridicule of the world when an employee of the company in question cornered her with a series of tweets.

For those of you who missed the fall of Cisco Fatty, here’s the run down: a woman by the Twitter username @theconnor, tweeted: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

Not long after, a long-time Cisco employee, @timmylevad, replied: “Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.” He went further with more tweets about the applicant’s naivete, contacted bloggers to write about the incident and asked followers to retweet his comments. Read the rest of this entry »