New iPhone features will impact your business beyond Facebook

SFBJ | Social

Reprinted from South Florida Business Journal

Apple’s new iPhone Facebook integration features and proprietary maps program replacing Google maps are important for business in many ways.

This fall, when the many iPhone users receive their new iPhones or iOS 6 software upgrades, the Facebook App logo will greet them preloaded on their Apps Menu.

Since the majority of users never delete their preloaded apps – and this is especially true for baby boomers and busy moms – this can increase both user and posting numbers.

And, like Twitter has been, Facebook will also now be shown on the share option menu for content.

Combine that with continued support for Facebook advertising by global brands like Ford and Coca-Cola, and the potential for the Facebook stock rising back to IPO levels in the next few months seems possible, particularly as the iPhone share of market continues to grow.

We can’t imagine that the power of bringing the most used smartphone closer together with the most used social medium will be anything less than enormous, and impact the value of Facebook advertising significantly. This is great news for both Facebook advertisers and investors.

It also puts another arrow in the quiver of the argument for businesses of all sizes to include Facebook advertising in their media mix.

More and more businesses are using Facebook advertising to increase frequency of messaging to target an audience that can easily be defined on Facebook, not only by public profiles, but by the brands they “Like.” While click-through rates often seem low, the cost to get them is also low.

Another cost-effective use of the medium is to test campaign messages. In three days, you can confidently determine which messages resonate best among your targets. Compare that cost to weeks of focus group testing in multiple markets nationwide.

International travelers, who can post messages on Facebook pages to communicate long-distance for free – with no roaming or text-message costs – are discovering another business use for Facebook. This begins to define another niche market for many travel-related products.

So Facebook users and applications continue to grow with iPhone features and easy access support – and so will opportunities for marketers.

On the other hand, the new iPhone features will have a negative impact on Google.

Not only will Apple’s new mapping system out-cool the Google maps program, it will rip millions of user impressions from Google maps for ads and traffic data.

There will also be an immediate, direct affect on Google revenue this fall, since Apple currently pays Google significantly to load their maps on iPhones, which they will, of course, no longer do.

Facebook users may currently be growing faster than advertising revenue, but the future looks bright for the company to grow and benefit advertisers even more significantly for years to come.