Facebook is currently the most visited website in the world. Every day, more and more companies are beginning to utilize the unlimited means of promotion available on Facebook. Facebook is also the fastest growing website and it is very important for people to know how to utilize the tool known as social media. Below is a short tutorial on “How to Create a Facebook Page” for beginners.
Disney's Use of Social Media
Disney is one of the largest companies in the world, and as a large company it is important for them to promote themselves to the best of their abilities. Disney has become very involved in the social media world. In July of 2010, Disney bought Playdom, Facebook’s third largest social gaming company for $563.2 million. Disney also added Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg to their Board of Directors in December of 2009. When looking at Disney’s Company Facebook page, which is currently “Liked” by over 21 million fans, users can see how Disney has incorporated all the different aspects of their company and pooled them into one common location. An article in CF News 13 notes that Disney began posting regularly on Facebook back in August of 2009. Disney has over 200 Facebook pages that are all linked to the company’s main Facebook. In the first year, Disney managed to gain over 60 million “Likes” between their 200 pages. Disney reached 69 Million Fans and Counting in October 2010. By this time, Disney had created an interactive way of tracking its fans. The company’s main Facebook page connects all of the fans of the individual Disney pages, such as “Finding Nemo” or “Pirates of the Caribbean” , by linking them all the this “landing page”. Disney designed a Tab function of its Facebook page that is used to showcase its fans and highlight which pages are the most popular. By doing this, they are generating more traffic to their other pages, as well as linking fans with one another. The page also shows postings about different things happening in the world of Disney. I believe that this interesting way of connecting fans is directly linked to the rapid growth of the Disney Facebook page.
Disney has also created interactive fan pages for different movies. The Alice in Wonderland Facebook page is a fantastic example of this. When fans go to the Alice in Wonderland Facebook page, they can “Hat” themselves and prove their allegiance to the cause. Fans can create their own hat and by doing this they are becoming a part of the action in the movie and taking their stand against the Red Queen. The movie was released in March 2010 and currently has over 5 Million “Likes”.
In December 2010, Disney reached 100 Million “Likes” on Facebook. Ironically enough, this landmark was met on what would have been Walt Disney’s 109th Birthday. In celebration of this achievement, the company released the following video outlining their involvement in Facebook.
Disney's "Tickets Together"
One of Disney’s most interesting promotional tools is an application they created on Facebook called “Disney Tickets Together”. Disney created this application to promote their new Toy Story 3 movie. The application allows Facebook users to buy Disney movie tickets on Disney’s Facebook. The application then prompts you to invite your Facebook friends to buy tickets to that movie as well. I feel that their effort to combine selling movie tickets and the power of social media is a huge landmark. This could potentially change the way Hollywood sells movie tickets. Originally, only tickets to Toy Story 3 were available on “Disney Tickets Together”, however they have now expanded the site to incorporate more movies.
Criticisms
Overall, Disney has positioned itself at the forefront of social media promotion. By creating interactive pages on Facebook, they are linking their wide variety of users together in a common place. I feel that Disney has set the bar for other companies. However, I did notice that on Disney.com there are no widgets linking users to the company's Facebook. Although Disney has been extremely successful in their social media campaigns, I believe that by linking their Facebook to their company website will increase traffic and help them to grow even more!
One of Disney’s most interesting promotional tools is an application they created on Facebook called “Disney Tickets Together”. Disney created this application to promote their new Toy Story 3 movie. The application allows Facebook users to buy Disney movie tickets on Disney’s Facebook. The application then prompts you to invite your Facebook friends to buy tickets to that movie as well. I feel that their effort to combine selling movie tickets and the power of social media is a huge landmark. This could potentially change the way Hollywood sells movie tickets. Originally, only tickets to Toy Story 3 were available on “Disney Tickets Together”, however they have now expanded the site to incorporate more movies.
Criticisms
Overall, Disney has positioned itself at the forefront of social media promotion. By creating interactive pages on Facebook, they are linking their wide variety of users together in a common place. I feel that Disney has set the bar for other companies. However, I did notice that on Disney.com there are no widgets linking users to the company's Facebook. Although Disney has been extremely successful in their social media campaigns, I believe that by linking their Facebook to their company website will increase traffic and help them to grow even more!
