Thursday, June 23, 2011

Isn't it Ironic?

Alanis Morissette describes irony best in her 1995 hit song "Ironic" (click here to spark your memory). Yesterday I mentioned my initial disappointment in Facebook's restricted page design capabilities. Well what do you think I stumbled across today? News that now you can customize your page! Sit back, relax, and let Alanis serenade you while reading further.

Access to page designs is based on your Klout score. This is a measurement of your online influence -- the amount of interactions and visits your page and posts receive. The higher your influence, the higher your score. Simple, right? As mentioned in my previous blog, Facebook is great at seeing the bigger picture. The bigger picture in this case is the ability for companies to get free publicity through high Klout scores.

Company Facebook pages are able to create page designs that are available to users with high Klout scores. The higher the Klout score, the more designs available. The organizations can create designs that promote their brand. For instance, Audi has a background with a picture of the LeMans.

When someone gains access to the backgrounds and applies them to their page, anyone who visits their page will see the images. So if a user applied the LeMans image to their page, everyone who visits will see the product and be exposed to Audi's brand.

To add further irony to this post, companies hardly do any work to gain the publicity! The user works to increase their Klout score, only to benefit their organization and gain an eye-catching page. What a win-win situation!