Facebook Best Practice: Dine Out Vancouver 2008
With a worldwide community of over 100 million members, Facebook has nearly limitless potential and obvious benefits, which is why the Dine Out Vancouver campaign is so exciting.
Quick stats for the group:
Members: 6,684 (currently)
Established: for the 2008 campaign
Comments: 414
Photos: 207
These numbers are especially significant because the campaign ended Feb 3, 2008, so the remaining members are so excited for the next installment that they have remained within the group and in many cases active. The last post was October 3, 2008.
Why this matters:
Due to their group member’s profiles Vancouver now knows much more than they did before about the people that are invested in their marketing. Vancouver provided their enthusiasts with a platform to interact and in turn created a viral marketing success story from a free Facebook account and the event information that was previously available, in static versions. Additionally, people are so engaged within this campaign that they take pictures of their meals and in many cases uploaded them to the group’s page, which caused them to return to the group post event. The continued interactions among the group members are additional touch points for Vancouver to engage their market.
Keys to Success:
Vancouver knew that their customers loved this campaign, it sells out quickly, comments were showing up on blogs and other social communities, and perhaps the best indicator of all was that seats were being resold on Craigslist, much like coveted concert or sporting event tickets. People were already discussing, planning and waiting for Dine Out 2008, so Vancouver merely provided them with a platform to express this passion with likeminded users.
Moral of the story:
In order to gain attention and spread virally within the fiercely competitive Facebook landscape the interest and excitement needs to exist. If you create a group, members will come, but only if they are invested in the topic, passion will drive involvement.