Social media specialists discuss Facebook marketing strategies in new book

Posted by Elena del Valle on April 1, 2011

The Facebook Marketing Book book cover

Photo: O’Reilly Media

So Facebook has become large, really large. From a business perspective what does that mean? Can Facebook help you promote your brand, products, and services? While an increasing number of users become frustrated with the social media site’s fluid privacy policies others wonder if the return on investment in time and human resources are worth the effort.

Dan Zarrella, an inbound marketing manager at HubSpot, and his wife Alison Zarrella, a copywriter and social media consultant, believe the popular site can be a useful marketing business tool. They share their ideas on the subject in The Facebook Marketing Book (O’Reilly, $19.99) a newly published book.

“Facebook is today what websites were 10 years ago, it’s a relatively ‘new’ thing, but your customers expect you to be there, and your competitors know this. To younger generations, it’s especially odd to see a company not using Facebook. In short, you can’t afford not to be on it,” said Alison Zarrella, coauthor with her husband, Dan. “After reading this book, readers will have a clear map of what they can do on Facebook and where to start. They’ll know what they can do on their own, and what they might need a little help with.”

The 272-page softcover book features introductions to Profiles, Groups, Pages, Applications, Ads, Events, and Facebook etiquette. It is divided into twelve chapters.

The authors promise readers clear, actionable items to deal with Facebook, information to understand the social networking world, information on technologies necessary to take advantage of social network marketing, possible tactics to use on Facebook and its features, tips on setting campaign goals and learning which Facebook features may be useful to marketing campaigns, and ways to measure campaign results.

Dan Zarrella has written about the science of viral marketing, memetics (an information pattern) and social media on his and other blogs. He was awarded Shorty and Semmy awards for social media and viral marketing. In her work Alison Zarrella has consulted for Holiday Inn, InterContinental Hotels Group, Tide, Always, GMAC Mortgage, General Motors, Samsung, Buick and GMC Sierra.