Readers of Political Integrity Now – or, most likely, any of several other websites – may have caught a nifty advertising tactic from Natalie Nichols, who’s running for Clerk down in Bowie County, Texas. Nichols’s campaign is using ads to direct people right to her Facebook page through a Fan Box.
Facebook created Fan Box widgets to let visitors of a given website see the corresponding fan page without having to click through or anything. Nichols is putting her Fan Box on other people’s networks by making it the creative of her ad campaign:
Nichols has a nice looking website, so why wouldn’t she just direct people back there and wow them with the flashy design? Because as impressive as it may look, people don’t visit Nichols’ campaign website every day. Many do visit Facebook every day. By directing people to the Facebook page, Nichols is getting people where they already operate. People who join her Facebook fan page are probably more likely to take further action down the road than folks who sign up for an email list and then forget two days later.
The Facebook Fan Box also has an advantages that shouldn’t be overlooked: it shows the pictures of people who have joined up. People are hard-wired to look for images of other people, and ads which feature people tend to draw our eyes more successfully. Nichols didn’t even have to design such an ad – she let the fan box do the work.
Best of all, readers of Political Integrity Now – or any other site on which the Fan Box appears – can join the cause in one click. Thus they are able to take a small yet significant action without leaving the site they were on in the first place.
Jim Eltringham 