2. The ability to analyze and optimize (quickly). Creating content and responding to people is an integral part of the job, but community managers must be able to look at data to determine what is working and what is not. If certain types of content are resonating, whether it is due to the publishing schedule, substance or style, community managers should be able to effectively optimize accordingly. Conversely, if engagement is down, community managers must be able to move quickly in a new direction without hesitation.

3. A constant connection to the social world. Community managers cannot limit themselves to working a 9-5 day, Monday through Friday, because communities are real time and don't care when you're in the office. Community managers need to establish guidelines to have specific team members active on call around the clock, or as much as possible.

While there are times when communities might be less active, an important comment or question from a fan published on Saturday morning simply cannot be left for Monday morning. Community managers need to commit to checking social networks in the evening and on weekends. The best community managers will embrace the opportunity to provide value to your brand outside normal work hours.

4. An insatiable appetite for your industry. Community managers need to be interested and passionate about more than just your company. Great community managers are tuned into the industry's top news sources and thought leaders and are constantly looking for links, videos and news to provide to their communities. Community managers who are excited about the overall industry, and not just their own brand, can effectively communicate that passion to their fans and followers.

5. Short-term and long-term thinker. Community managers often think about the day-to-day of creating updates and responding to people online. Being able to work in the moment and quickly read and react to conversations online is a crucial part of the job.

But equally as important is the ability to look at the big picture and to work toward long-term goals and objectives. Effective community managers can think "big picture" in order to use community management as a way to reach business objectives. Whether the goal is to relieve pressure on customer service call centers or to reach certain engagement or web traffic benchmarks, the best community management candidates can put together long-term strategies and then work daily to reach those goals.

Photo by jynmeyer

In my experience working advising some of the world's largest brands on Facebook, I agree with the author that some of these tactics are generally not best practices, however, applying a blanket statement to anything when it comes to social media is a slippery slope.

Let's look into each of the tactics mentioned in the original post and dig a bit deeper.

Like Blocks

A "like block" or "fan gate" is akin to putting up an entry page to your Facebook Page(s) and offering up people an incentive to like the Page to enter, whether it be exclusive content, a discount on products or services, etc. The author of the post said like blocking "typically has a 50% or more drop off rate," but in our experience this often varies greatly depending on industry, the content or offer employed to incentivize the like etc. By 50% drop off rate, it is implied that half of the people who "like" a Page in response to a specific incentive will never come back.

We've seen drastically different results, where brands have increased their fan base anywhere from 2 times to 10 times (and keep them engaged) by simply using owned media like a distribution list that pushes potential fans to a fan gated Page. This is a great fan acquisition strategy.

Working with Playboy, we've been very successful utilizing like blocks, and Playboy now has more Facebook likes than actual magazine subscribers, an amazing feat for the brand. The key is making the content behind the fan gate worth it. Deep discounts, free samples and exclusive must see content can work well. Do like blocks typically have a 50% or more drop off rate? It depends. But they shouldn't if you're doing it right.

Photo and video contests

This was perhaps the most interesting example of something the author said "mostly doesn't work," especially since as we mentioned earlier, there are success stories for these kind of tactics all around the Web.

Also, as some commenters to the post pointed out, what the author suggested, running a photo or video contest outside of an app, is actually a violation of Facebook's terms of service.

We've seen varying levels of success with photo and video contests and certainly wouldn't say they "mostly don't work." One of our customers, a national toy company, increased their fan-base on Facebook by 10,000 fans per week driven by a successfully executed photo contest with no advertising spend.

Last year, the Miss Universe Organization ran a contest where people uploaded their photos and other information to be elected as a "contestant" for the 2010 Miss USA Pageant. The contest took place over a two week period and yielded more than 300 entries and tens of thousands of votes

Certainly there is opportunity here, as eMarketer notes photo sharing is a major trend on Facebook. More than 6 billion photos are uploaded to Facebook each month.

Sweepstakes

Sweepstakes can be tricky on Facebook, but it's not fair to say they "work" or "don't work" across the board. This past fall, we launched a "fan only" sweepstakes on the Parents magazine Facebook page. More than 16,000 fans entered the sweepstakes. Meredith Corporation, the publisher of Parents magazine, has not seen a decline in engagement from these fans; in fact, they've seen increased engagement.

In another example, workwear manufacturer Carhartt recently ran a sweepstakes that saw several thousand entries over just 10 days.

Sweepstakes clearly can work, but you need to be smart about how you implement them. You also need to encourage people to share right after they've entered to increase viral lift. If you don't have this functionality, you'll be dead in the water.

Where We Agree With The Author

Extended Permission: We've all had the experience. You click on a cool app or link on Facebook and are brought to a page that asks if it's ok for the app to pull some of your specific profile data. You have to really want the app or experience in order to move forward, right? The drop off data here can vary greatly, but it's definitely higher than if you build an experience that doesn't require this permission page to pop up.

Unbranded Apps: The argument from the author is that brands can't use widely available unbranded turnkey apps that don't allow them to customize the experience, because people will "judge your brand in comparison to the best they've seen," according to author.

We completely agree that people expect a lot more from brands on Facebook today, as compared to a year ago. Brands on Facebook have moved from a one-off app strategy to an always-on Page strategy. (Remember before it was possible to "like" ReadWriteWeb?)

Lots of apps on one tab: In many cases brands have seen success by pairing down the amount of content they have on a customer Facebook Page or tab to ensure that people know exactly what they can do (and how they can easily share with their friends) when they visit your Page. Facebook users don't have a lot of patience when it comes to branded experiences. They want to get back to their News Feed to see what their friends are doing. Make sure the action you want someone to take is obvious, requires little time investment, and motivates him or her to share.

If you make your fans look smart, cool, or in the know, it's a great way to motivate sharing. Remember, Facebook users don't just share what they want to share, they share what they think their friends will think makes them look smart, funny, or cool.

Now lets get back to the original story's headline, "Why Most Facebook Marketing Doesn't Work." It's almost impossible to make blanket statements about the success of social media marketing campaigns without considering business objectives, audience, execution and other factors. Hopefully you feel the same way.