In another effort to lure brands to Facebook as a marketing tool, select brands can now see their fans’ other likes. So far, only big-budget, “priority accounts,” have been given access to this highly coveted data, and Tim Peterson of Adweek reports that agencies and their clients had to visit a Facebook office in order to get access to it. In other words, this is a feature that Facebook is still guarding closely.
Enabling brands to see the other pages, brands, television shows, bands, and so on that fans of their own Facebook Pages like is just one more useful component of behavioral targeting that brands want desperately. Using tools like Wisdom, Infinigraph, and Relevvant, brands can access some of this data already, and advertisers can use tools like SocialCode and Wildfire to make better decisions to drive maximum results. However, incorporating access to all of the data directly through Facebook will surely be popular among brands and advertisers.
Of course, the reaction from Facebook members might not be as positive, since Facebook is so often attacked for revealing too much private information about users to organizations that are willing to pay for it.
Social data is valuable, and Facebook is sitting on a massive amount of highly-personalized social data. Facebook knows this. It holds the power, and only time will tell if this new feature will expand to more brands in the future. The number of ways that brands can use this data to provide relevant offers to existing customers, meaningful offers to new customers, and co-sponsored offers to both audiences are vast, and creative brands will undoubtedly launch innovative and effective marketing initiatives using this data in the near future.
Think about how your brand could use data, which shows everything your brand’s Facebook fans like. Having access to that information would enable you to launch timelier offers and better targeted offers. Most importantly, this data could make a significant difference in generating positive marketing ROI.
What do you think?
Image: Denis Dervisevic
Lucy is Editor at Corporate Eye
