Any business can become King of social media, not just burgers

Facebook reached 500 hundred million users worldwide a few weeks back. That's rather a lot by anyone's estimation.

Even more staggering is that 50% of active users log on every day, and average internet users spend more time on Facebook per day, than on Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia and Amazon combined!

With such an active consumer base brands are jumping on the Facebook bandwagon to reach customers. But are they doing this effectively?

Research from the Altimeter Group revealed that brands fell short, and nearly half reviewed did not fully leverage Facebook to activate word of mouth.

It's interesting that even though The Society of Digital Agencies reports that 45% of senior marketers named social networks and applications their top priority for 2010, so many businesses are behind the curve in using these channels effectively for their marketing and PR.

It's even more perturbing when you consider the impact some recent Facebook campaigns have had.

Tourism Queensland's "The Best Job In The World" campaign was a PR and viral marketing phenomenon with 336,000 Facebook-referred website visits, and over £5.5 million worth of exposure generated.

Last year Burger King created a Facebook application that encouraged users to remove Facebook friends, in exchange for a free Whopper.

This was a brilliantly creative Facebook campaign that saw 233,906 friends removed by 82,771 people in less than a week. It also generated great PR, with Burger King and the advertising agency applauded for their out of the box approach.

These examples show that brands like Burger King that get their online strategy right can really reap the rewards from social media.

There appears no reason for other businesses not to follow the same route, as simple but innovative idea's spread through social media networks and their community of online users can prove to be a powerful free branding tool.

Saying that, I'd still choose a Big Mac any day of the week...

Mark