I’m a big Flip video fan from way back in the day – OK, only a couple of years ago, just before the company released its second major product version (which I waited for and purchased at Best Buy). I always admired Pure Digital Technologies, the Flip manufacturer, for its singular focus: making it easy and simple to upload your home videos to YouTube (through the use of a built-in USB plug). That’s all anyone in this social era wanted — at least for non-technical folks like me.

I digress, but not too far, because the other day I got an email advertisement from Flip (now owned by Cisco Systems following a $570M acquisition) promoting its holiday lineup. Something at the bottom of the email caught my eye: an offer to get an immediate $15 discount if I joined Flip’s Facebook page. So that’s how much a Facebook friend is worth, I thought.

It may not be as simple as that, but Flip is clearing investing in its Facebook and social media presence. The company, thanks in part to its promotion, is now up to 102K fans on Facebook – that’s a pretty large opt-in list of folks interested in engaging with the Flip brand.

I particularly love the company’s new “Do You Flip?” campaign, where they invite Flip users to upload their videos to their Facebook page. Then they display selected videos in their news feed. It’s a great strategy and a no-brainer — too few companies realize the value (and relative ease) of using social media to cultivate a community of brand advocates. It works in part because Flip is properly promoting its Facebook page across different marketing channels, such as its e-mail newsletter, and using incentives to get them there.

Flip Video's Facebook Page

From personal experience, the numbers back up social media investment.

For example, using Tealium social media analytics at my current job, we’re able to compare the behavior of all web site visitors versus those who just come from our social media initiatives (blog outreach, social networks, etc). In almost every category, from time spent on site, to page views per visit, to goal conversion rate, social media visitors are a far better source of traffic. It only makes sense – they are engaged.

Social media is the right marketing investment — perhaps even at $15 per fan.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 8:24 am and is filed under Measurement, social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.