Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

I spotted a very interesting statistic on PSFK - Facebook now ranks as the top photo sharing website in the world. PSFK’s analysis of why Facebook has overtaken traditional photo sharing websites is very insightful:

Perhaps it’s because people want to do more with their photos then just store and share them online…When users upload to Facebook, they’re giving their photos a context and bringing them into their social worlds. The photos, in some sense, become units of social capital. Users post photos onto Facebook not just to share them with others, but to serve as an extension of their online identities, as an element of the narrative they want to tell about themselves to their friends and network. On Facebook, the value of a photo (even a hastily posted mobile upload) is in its ability to crystallize a moment in a user’s life to be shared, recorded and filed into the annals of his/her (and their friends) social history.

This analysis underlines behaviour I have witnessed on Facebook over the past year and opens up potential opportunities for brands to engage consumers on the website. Traditionally most consumer brands’ online engagement on social networking sites is very linear. It simply consists of creating a social networking profile and adding friends, but rarely includes any ongoing engagement.

One of the more successful brands in Ireland to have use social networks to compliment its comms activity is the crisps brand Tayto. Its title character Mr Tayto was brought to life two years ago and has since appeared on Bebo and Facebook. A quick glance at both profiles shows that while both have been successfully for onnecting with consumers, the Bebo profile is quite active whereas there is not much going on on the Facebook profile.

Quick and easy way to solve this is to take pictures of Mr Tayto with members of the public when he is out and about on tour. Consumers are doing this anyway when the character is undertaking promotional activity, so why not take pictures of them and then tag them online. All of a sudden the brand can become a lot more engaging and bring some of its campaigns, such as the current programme to find Mr Tayto a Halloween costume, to life.

The lesson here is to understand how consumers are interacting on line and leveraging this by placing your brand in the thick of the action. Granted it’s easier said than done, but you have more chance of success by keeping things simple.