10 Free iTunes Songs to Facebook fans of iTunes

Posted by Allison on August 20, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Don’t think Facebook is that important? Tell that to Apple, who is
currently offering its “Spring into Summer” iTunes mix to all of its
Facebook fans. That’s 10 songs, or $10 of product, free to each person
who agrees to be updated by iTunes via their Facebook home page any
time iTunes has some new information (exclusive offers, featured downloads, and helpful hints) to share.

As someone who finds great enjoyment in seeing the power of Facebook in action, this promotion has been a blast for me track. Here’s what I’ve seen.

Before crawling up to bed last night, I checked in on my Facebook home page, as I do every night. Sitting there was a message to me from one of my favorite bands, the Decemberists (yes, the message was also sent to the band’s 29,000 other fans, but I prefer to think they’re talking directly to me). The band informed me of this iTunes promotion, as one of their songs (the disturbingly awesome “The Rake’s Song”) is part of the mix.

Immediately, I became a “fan” of iTunes, was provided with a coupon code, and downloaded my 10 songs. Because it was such a great promotion, I updated my status to let my friends know they, too, could take part. Minutes later, I saw two of my Facebook friends do the same thing (download the album and update their statuses). By the time I woke up this morning, a dozen of my friends had informed all of their friends, and the number of iTunes fans had grown from 900,000 to 1 million.

In a matter of just a few hours, iTunes gained a direct line to over 100,000 people. They know the importance of Facebook. They know that millions of people are just like me, and check Facebook a few times a day. What’s more, they understand Facebook marketing is currently the most powerful form of marketing online. So, yes, they’ll give away $1,000,000 of product for 100,000 fans, and they’ll do so happily. After all, they’ve already earned back my $10…the Elizabeth and the Catapult track on the iTunes mix inspired me to purchase the entire album, and I leave happy.

Why your business should create a Facebook fan page

When we discuss Facebook with our clients, the most common question we are asked is, “Should my business be a profile, a fan page, or a group?”. The answer is, “fan page”.

While I could go into the many benefits of the fan page over the profile and group options (the most obvious being that the fan page can be indexed and searched by Google, whereas the others cannot), the best reason to create a fan page is because it’s how Facebook tells you to promote your business. And, as I’ve explained to many clients, you should always do what Facebook tells you to do, because you never know what they have in store for the future.

Case in point, today we received this e-mail from Facebook:

Hi Facebook Pages Admin,

Facebook Ads for your Page will now get you even more Fans.

You are now able to create ads that will allow users to become a Fan of your Page directly from the ad. Users can also click anywhere on your ad to access your Page, get more information and become further engaged.

Benefits of using Ads for Pages:

Without leaving the page they are viewing, users can become a Fan directly from the ad

When a user becomes a Fan of your Page from the ad, a story is published in the user’s Wall.

This story is eligible to show in Highlights- creating free distribution in the social graph

In addition, users will see friends who have become a Fan of your Page in their version of the ad – increasing the relevancy of your ad.

Even if you don’t understand how incredibly awesome these new features are (and they are), you should note that they are only available to those who have created fan pages for their business. Those with business profiles or groups are left out to dry.

So, do yourself a favor and get your business a Facebook fan page. All you have to do is go to Facebook.com – Create a Page, and follow the instructions.