Using Facebook Apps to Increase Traffic by 300%

I asked the question before "Why aren't more merchants developing for Facebook"? Muhammad Saleem has given his reasons Why Facebook Is Not A Viable Marketing Platform and he's totally right!

But the problem is that US companies are expected to spend $2billion advertising social media sites by 2011.

Muhammad's interesting conclusion is:

"This research coupled with Fox Interactive Media's earlier research shows that not only is the return on investment for social-network-based marketing campaigns better than the alternatives but that more and more marketers are making the leap of faith and opting for this non-traditional strategy."

Also:

"Interestingly enough, the research also found that sports apparel manufacturer Adidas and video game developer Electronic Arts attributed more than 70% of their marketing return on investment to the "Momentum Effect", which is marketing-speak for how your brand propagates through a social network beyond the extent to which you advertise (i.e. word-of-mouth)."

So can the next person that calls social media marketing "bollocks" a bit of research first?

It's just like anything online, if you don't do it properly you'll wasting a bucket full of cash. If you think outside the box and inside the consumer's mind then it's you that will be earning the loot.