. With 200+ million users to reach, a strong campaign on the world’s social network is almost a requirement for major brands, which is why companies like Target have built campaigns on it. But what if you’re a company that doesn’t have the knowledge, time, or resources to build a following and presence on Facebook? Sprout, the service for quickly building and deploying social networking apps and widgets (which also recently pulled the plug on free accounts), is hoping to serve that audience offering an interesting program called F3, which builds a complete presence on Facebook for brands.
The F3 bundle provides three primary services: a fully-customized Facebook page, a branded Facebook application, and website integration with Facebook Connect. This allows the user, from start to finish, to interact with a company’s products via their Facebook account, while the company has a virtual presence on the social network.
One of the key points of Sprout’s F3 program is their promise to have the F3 bundle complete in two weeks, which is, by almost any standard, really, really fast.
The one caveat is that F3 Bundle costs around $50,000. It costs nothing to create a Facebook Page, so this is covering the cost of creating the application, integration with Facebook Connect, and gettting the ball rolling on building a Facebook following through a social media campaign.
This price tag places Sprout’s offering well outside the range of most startups, who probably can do all of this on their own for much cheaper. However, it could be a useful solution for large companies that lack in-house social media expertise.
That said, we want to remind major brands that you cannot buy your way into social media. It requires joining the conversation and interacting with customers in order for a social media presence to be truly successful.