3 Things I Learned Spending a Day at Facebook

I attended an event recently co-hosted by Animoto and Facebook at the Facebook offices, here in NYC. While the topic at hand was branding and brand consistency in social media advertising, I found myself observing some other interesting lessons along the way. Here are the three that struck me the most.

Communicate where people are

As a social media company, you would assume that Facebook would exclusively communicate with their employees via digital means, but while I was in the restroom, I was fascinated by their in-stall signage highlighting tips, upcoming programming, and other community information.

It was a great reminder that sometimes the best places to reach our audiences (and employees) are where they’re naturally spending their time.

While we focus on digital marketing, sometimes our recommendations to clients includes out-of-home advertising such as signage or billboards. Sometimes it even includes leafletting or mailbox stuffing. What works for you must be customized to your audience and where they are.

Invest in educating your customers

In the last nearly 15 years in marketing, I’ve used my fair share of software, tools, and platforms. Of course, each one offers webinars and training videos. But sometimes, nothing beats getting people into a room together to spend the day learning.

Not only is it good for brand loyalty, but it enhances your customers’ abilities to get the most value out of your tools/services.

In addition to this Facebook event that I attended, brands like Meltwater Social do a great job of hosting events that bring people together to learn. [Full disclosure: I have been paid to speak at a Meltwater Social event previously.]

Empower teams with identity and purpose

Our workshop was lead by the Creative Shop, a specific in-house team within Facebook, and the materials they handed out to us were branded specifically to that team and not Facebook.

Not only did this internal branding define the team’s role externally, but it also honed the identity and purpose of the people within the team internally. As a business owner and manager, I’m fascinated by the idea of using internal branding as a way to empower one’s teams and to rally them around a shared purpose. Instead of being a department, why not be a brand of their own?

This idea has applications for internal communications, but it also has applications for external communications. Brands that have “street teams” and “ambassador squads” use this type of thinking to great effect.

Have questions for me that you’d like to see me tackle in future blog posts? Shoot me a note!