A Great Microsite

I recently discovered NFL Network's campaign for Joe's Diner. Very nicely done! I LOVE the commercials that they've aired on TV (and not just because they feature a character named Matt, who reminds me of my husband--another Pats fan from the Worcester area, also named Matt!). The site allows you to view the entire campaign, up through the most recent one that they've aired, plus has a fake video bio of the diner's owner (played by Joe Montana). There's even a link to Matt's Patriots blog, to encourage comments from the community.

Overall, I think it's very cool and nicely done, but I do have a few suggestions for the NFL Network to improve the site.

• The commercials are hilarious. They're so funny that I want to share them with my friends. Why not include a link at the end of the video to make that easy for me? You do it at the end of the video bio for Joe, so I know you know how! You have great content--encourage viral behavior!
• What's up with the fact that the posts on Matt's blog all have the same date? After taking so much care with everything else, that just seems sloppy.
• I actually didn't notice the blog the first time I cruised through the site. I only noticed it after I decided I wanted to post here about the microsite and went back to take another look. Again, you've taken so much care with everything, but you should make it easier for visitors to find aspects of the site that encourage them to hang around and stay engaged!

Facebook Redux

Aha! Finally the pieces are starting to come together regarding how Facebook can be used for marketing purposes. The possibilities with advertising via Facebook's Social Ads are fairly obvious (though intriguing due to the ability to highly target those ads based on demographics, interests, etc.).

The Wall Street Journal ran an article this week with examples of how small businesses have used their profiles and group pages to build awareness and share products and services. Now Facebook has made another type of page available--company pages. I find this idea fascinating, and the wheels are already turning in my head to see how this could be used on a bigger scale. I think that the biggest challenge will be in how to speak to and connect with people ("fans" on Facebook) in an engaging and personalized way, rather than as a company to a group of customers and prospects (i.e., how to leverage the conversational aspects that are so strong and almost inherent in social media space, rather than falling back on the one-sided relationship found in traditional marketing).

Facebook

Many people in the business blogging/podcasting world have been talking a lot about Facebook recently, so I decided to join and give it a try. So far I've been able to connect with a bunch of old friends, which has been FANTASTIC. But, I'm even more excited to see how Facebook grows and changes as all these business people play around and experiment!