The Fifth Estate Applied: Facebook Strategy There is a running joke about clients demanding a Facebook strategy. But in reality, beyond demanding a strategy for a tool, their requests are not unreasonable. Facebook owns half of U.S. social network traffic, and one half of the U.S. population has an account on the social network. Using this tool within the context of a larger online effort usually makes sense. Facebook has everything from video and pics to groups and questions. From a marketer’s perspective, perhaps the most attractive features are the robust activity stream and inbound Like functionality. But even if Facebook doesn’t have the function you need, a company or nonprofit can build a custom app for the social network. …

Image: Water chess board by cozmicberliner The following is draft material for my next book, Welcome to the Fifth Estate (the follow up to Now Is Gone, which is almost out of print). Comments may be used in the final edition. You can download the first drafted chapter of the new edition — Welcome to the Fifth Estate — for free. If strategy can be defined as the terms and conditions of how to engage with the Fifth Estate (or whether to engage at all) then there are many different and unique ways to do just that. Individual voices, teams, mainstream social networks, applications, pages, groups, documents, wikis, your blog, their blogs, the list goes on on ad infinitum. Choosing …