Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has been noted for its social awareness, having played a major role in significant events around the world – being the main source for disseminating information in Syria and Libya during their popular uprisings, as well as being a key source for encouraging support in India after some bloody violence in the northeastern part of the country. The company had recently started a new initiative that is now spreading across the ocean, and is starting a program to encourage advertisers to post very targeted marketing messages.
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is nothing if it’s not about reaching out.
On one channel, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has recently begun expanding its organ-donation awareness initiative onto the Asian continent, opening the opportunity for users in South Korea to post their intention to be an organ donor, establishing a network of contact to match organs with those who need them. South Korea is the first Asian country to be a part of this initiative. Users can add “Organ Donor” to their Timelines as a Life Event, and the user could then fill out an online form that essentially places them on the country’s organ-donation registry – which may then make those donors easily to find and contact.
In a statement, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) said, “More than 114,000 people in the United States, and millions more around the globe, are waiting for the heart, kidney or liver transplant that will save their lives. Many of those people – an average of 18 people per day – will die waiting, because there simply aren’t enough organ donors to meet the need. Medical experts believe that broader awareness about organ donation could go a long way toward solving this crisis,” says Facebook.
South Korea joins the U.S., the U.K. and nine other countries in this initiative.
While we’re on the subject of outreach, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) will gradually be rolling out an opportunity for advertisers to create targeted marketing posts geared toward a certain demographic of Facebook user. Those pages with at least 100 fans will soon be able to send a post through filters (relationship status, age range, gender, location, etc.) to as specific a group as it wants (minimum of 20 people), in order to meet certain needs – more targeted posts tend to have a higher percentage of click-throughs and buy-ins than a general page post, which can improve a company’s ROI on this type of marketing. Plus, the company can establish better control of its messaging and its audiences so it does not annoy users and cause “dislikes” due to getting too many marketing messages when a user is not receptive to the message.
Getting out the message to a receptive population is certainly a vital aspect of the work of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) and its value as a service, although it has been hard to put a money figure on it for investors like hedge-fund manager Chase Coleman of Tiger Global Management LLC, who had $61 million invested in Facebook at the end of June.
