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Visa and Facebook in Cahoots
Writes Dan Drage dan.drage@consumerchoices.co.uk
Credit card issuer Visa has firmly nailed its colours to the social networking mast.
Visa, the world’s largest credit card issuer, is paying a cool £1million to promote its small business service on social networking behemoth Facebook.
The company is giving away $100 (£51) advertising credits to the first 20,000 US business start-ups that download its service via Facebook, with a similar UK oriented incentive expected to be announced soon.
Visa's online service is designed to help small firms run their businesses more efficiently, and aims to tap into Facebook’s 80 million strong database.
A significant number of small businesses have adapted their marketing strategies to include building communities through social networking. Approximately 80,000 small businesses have existing Facebook profiles; thousands of Internet programmes have been developed specifically for the social networking site.
The problem for Facebook, and its advertisers, is that few programmes generate any revenue. The majority of these applications are based on social activities, such as gaming, listening to music and picture-sharing, rather than commerce.
Chris Eagle, Commercial Manager at Credit Choices, is unconvinced by the relationship between credit cards, small businesses and the Facebook user base:
“Let’s face it, the majority of social networkers are in the 18-25 bracket, and the likelihood that they’ll be taken by this scheme is tenuous at best, non-existent at worst”
He continues:
“There are financial products designed for this age range though, such as the FSA financial training site, and credit cards that focus on the needs of students.”
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