Washington Post Launches Facebook Marketing Agency SocialCode
The Washington Post Company has officially launched its full-service Facebook marketing and advertising agency SocialCode. The agency will offer Page management, app development, social commerce, fan monetization, message testing, and advertising through Facebook’s Ads API.
As former newspaper readers move to Facebook to consume content, The Washington Post is experimenting to see if social marketing can replace ailing brand advertising in print as a core revenue stream.
The Washington Post has been a pioneer in how publishers can use Facebook. It was one of the first major newspapers to integrate Facebook Connect, and was later a launch partner for social plugins, which have led to a 280% increase in referral traffic. The Washington Post’s CEO Donald Graham has also been an advisor to Mark Zuckerberg and a Facebook board member since 2008.
Graham’s daughter, Laura Graham O’Shaughnessy, is general manger of SocialCode, which soft-launched in July. Like many Ads API services, SocialCode was initially developed by The Washington Post’s to manage its own Facebook marketing efforts, but will now be used to help brands. The company will compete with other full-service agencies like Webtrends, Buddy Media, and Experian, which just acquired Ads API tool provider Techlightenment this week.
By leaving the familiar local marketing industry for the internet, The Washington Post as well as Tribune and Gannett that have both recently launched digital services, will have to contend with services from around the world, not just in the cities where they own media outlets. These established publishers will likely need to leverage their existing relationships with brands to make up for their late start.
Developing a stable of high quality technologies for efficient creation of apps and dynamic optimization of Facebook ads can take significant time and resources. We’ll be doing a full profile of SocialCode’s services in the near future to see how it compare with other Facebook marketing options.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:47 am
ou can generate the basic HTML code automatically from the … Layouts and Facebook Backgrounds
January 20th, 2011 at 9:44 am
[...] Inside Facebook: Washington Post Launches Facebook Marketing Agency SocialCode [...]
January 20th, 2011 at 11:12 am
[...] January 20, 2011 by Cheryl Williams Inside Facebook announced today that the Washington Post Launched Facebook Marketing Agency SocialCode. There are already a number of social media management platforms available including Buddy [...]
January 20th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
What does the launch of SocialCode, a full service Facebook Advertising Agency, mean for the future of digital media? Will Newspaper companies across the US try and spin off similar models and be successful?…
The Washington Post Company has officially launched its full-service Facebook marketing and advertising agency SocialCode. The agency will offer Page management, app development, social commerce, fan monetization, message testing, and advertising throu…
January 21st, 2011 at 2:12 pm
[...] the two talk about the Washington Post’s foray into Facebook marketing–is this a good idea? Will it work? Bryan says that it’s worth a try, and is an [...]
January 23rd, 2011 at 8:36 am
[...] Washington Post Launches Facebook Marketing Agency SocialCode [...]
February 2nd, 2011 at 8:13 am
[...] I’m not too surprised that a traditional print media company has entered into the online advertising arena. It makes sense, because it’s a great way to compliment a print ad strategy for their clients. I think this is a clear indication that they are seeing customers advertising spend move to social media, and they want to stay in on the action. Amplify’d from http://www.insidefacebook.com [...]
February 8th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Are they serious ? i thought this was an experiment.
March 17th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
[...] I first heard the news that The Washington Post was spinning off a brand-new company to do Facebook-only consulting, I was incensed. Given that the future (and present) of marketing is multi-channel, multi-modal, [...]