Hi so I'm conducting a viral marketing experiment on facebook right now ahead of the launch in 2 weeks of our first IPhone game. I've friend requested 21,000 people. Most of whom provided their email addresses for adds from players of Mafia Wars etc. So I fully expect to get at least 3000+ friends if not capping the 5000 friends limit. For arguments sake, let us say I get 3000 friends on my marketing account. Once I am satisfied with the number I will send out a fan suggestion for my teams fanpage, where we promote our upcoming games with pictures/footage and news. I'm hoping maybe 1000 of them will sign up as a fan. From there the IPHONE game is launched and promoted on the fanpage with videos and links. I have no idea of how many fans will have iphones, let alone the volume this method will sell obviously. Anyway can anyone offer up so hard statistics, observations or advice to improve my methodology in this experiment?

Interestingly, I just heard an NPR interview with a Facebook marketer less than 5 minutes before seeing this post. Possibly off-topic with the OP's post:

Facebook Games Invite Spammers To Play

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120909144

The main thing I got out of the piece was that the interviewee, a former Facebook spammer, had learned that ethical behavior was the best policy.

Yeah, I was gonna say...

Why are you making a "marketing account"? Make a group or fan page. That's what they are designed for. Making a person for the purpose of marketing is sleazy.

Well i wasn't expecting the ethical backlash but I can see your points. As I've mentioned, it's an experiment. I'm not planning on stopping it on such ethical grounds. The point is to learn more about viral marketing and moreso within the facebook-sphere.

Well i wasn't expecting the ethical backlash but I can see your points. As I've mentioned, it's an experiment. I'm not planning on stopping it on such ethical grounds. The point is to learn more about viral marketing and moreso within the facebook-sphere.

Quote: Original post by Dygash
Well i wasn't expecting the ethical backlash but I can see your points. As I've mentioned, it's an experiment. I'm not planning on stopping it on such ethical grounds.

If you are using your personal account, be aware that it may well be closed for spamming. I would certainly report anyone who friend-requested me under these pretenses...

I am not using a personal account. Also many players of games such as mafia wars create separate accounts for their facebook gaming because of the amount of spam the games produce. Everyone I contacted put their names on mass emailing lists to bolster their friends lists into the thousands. At worst I consider my actions a mild nuisance to them, at best an interesting source of gaming products.

All I am doing is using the 'suggestion' feature to recommend our teams fanpage. I'm not datamining personal information. There's nothing malicious about this experiment.

Please try to stave off posting any more posts about your ethical perspective on this. The post was made to generate feedback on how to improve viral marketing strategies on facebook.

But this is not "viral marketing". Viral marketing happens when people naturally spread news about something. I love Game X, so I tell my friend about it and get him to download/buy it. You are attempting to artificially inject the system with spam under the banner of "viral marketing experiment".

Also, it is very disconcerting that you "will not stop at these ethical barriers". I will make sure never to do business with you, and I will tell others to do the same. How is THAT for viral marketing? ;)

Well TheBuzzSaw, that'd be pretty effective. Consider the experiment stopped.

I just deleted a high-school friend the other day for spamming crap like if I were a friggin cow.