Chapter 1
Facebook Takes Over Planet Earth
“When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place. So, what we view our role as, is giving people that power.”
—MARK ZUCKERBERG
PEOPLE ARE WALKING DOWN THE STREET BANGING INTO LIGHT POLES BECAUSE THEIR FACES ARE BURIED IN FACEBOOK. THEREIN LIES YOUR OPPORTUNITY.
The most precious commodity in the world is attention. Facebook is monopolizing it. Chomping it like a hungry beast. The average American spends five hours per day on Facebook. Wherever you are right now, look up and someone around you is probably on Facebook.
This book is about how to get in front of those people, get them to open their wallets, and then dominate markets because you’re better at this game than all your competitors.
Be warned right this minute that Facebook ads are a serious game. It’s a blood sport—not something you just casually dabble in. If you get really good at it, it’s a $1,000-per-hour skill and more. It gives you the ability to move mountains and nations. You can literally create cultures and movements at will.
But if you’re just going to goof around with it . . . play around . . . try a few experiments—forget it. Go waste your money some other way because 90 percent of Facebook advertisers merely dabble with it, and then Facebook ads amount to nothing more than an expensive tax write-off.
If you’re going to take this game seriously, then you bought the right book. And you should also avail yourself to the online supplement at www.perrymarshall.com/fbtools. Go there right now, and download the goodies.
Is Facebook Good or Bad?
I do not think that it is a “good” thing that a billion people are spending this much time on Facebook. I didn’t think it was a good thing when the same numbers of people were watching TV for five hours a day, either.
But nobody asked me. And they didn’t ask you. That’s just what people do.
If you’re going to be successful as a marketer or entrepreneur, you must choose to live in the “is” world—not the “should be” world. In the “is” world, 95 percent of people float around in a miasma of mild hypnosis, looking forward to their next hit of “Like” and “Share” happy juice or to extract their pound of flesh out of some bloke who disagrees with them about Donald Trump.
This book is all about how you get inside their head and get them to do what you want them to do. Whether you’re a church, a school, a winery, a life coach, a car manufacturer, or if you sell aluminum siding, you’ve got a job to do.
People are going to spend their time and money somewhere. If they spend their time and money with you, you succeed. If they spend it with someone else, you fail.
The fact that people are in a state of partial hypnosis helps you sell them stuff. In this book, you’ll learn how to harness that power.
WORKING VS. PLAYING
Now, the very first thing you have to do is get real with yourself and realize that for you, playing around on social media is NOT the same as RUNNING social media or CONTROLLING social media—pulling the puppet strings of the world.
Millions of people quit their jobs to start a business. They’re essentially being supported by their spouses. She goes to work every day, and while she’s changing bedpans at the hospital, she thinks her husband is working.
When in fact he’s just goofing off on Facebook all day. Doing stuff that sorta kinda looks like work.
And making zero money.
That guy is like the chef who, instead of cooking, just stands in the kitchen and shovels food in his mouth all day.
Well, this is a book about making money on Facebook—not screwing around on Facebook. Facebook ads is a serious endeavor. It’s a profession. You will get nowhere with those bad habits. You either pull the strings of the Matrix from outside the Matrix . . . or you’re in the Matrix being entertained by the Matrix. You can’t do both.
I deleted the standard Facebook app from my phone. I hardly ever use Facebook. When I do use Facebook, I use the phone browser instead of the app.
I never log into Facebook as a standard user until after 5:30 P.M. Most days I don’t log in at all. But on the very same day I may spend hours in the Facebook interface and Facebook advertising app being the chef and pulling the strings in the Matrix.
Never confuse activity with productivity. The two are not the same.
As a Facebook advertiser, you are tasked with injecting creativity into the system, then measuring and tracking the results. You use your tracking tools. Pay careful attention to what works and what doesn’t. Notice stuff. Accept your job, which is to influence the hypnotized masses who are coming to Facebook for their entertainment addiction.
You are not the guy who comes to the restaurant and feeds his face for five hours. You work in the restaurant. You serve up great dishes. You only sample enough of the soup to know whether it tastes good or bad . . . then you go on and create more great cuisine.
Sorry if this sounds preachy. But I have many, many customers and clients whose productivity, sales, profits, and income absolutely skyrocketed after they . . .
Deleted the Facebook app from their phone (along with Twitter, LinkedIn, and others)
Realized that the world is in an incessant, never-ending conspiracy to rob them of time, attention, creativity, and mental space
Closed the Facebook tab in their browser
Entirely stopped using Facebook in the usual fashion during work hours
Blocked all email notifications from Facebook and other social media
Halted ALL smart phone notifications from all social media apps—no banners on the screen, no little red numbers on your app icons, no distractions.
Go on. Do all of the above—now. If you don’t, it will be devilishly difficult to master this thing. Instead, it will master you.
Facebook has taken over the world. Facebook is the aquarium that lots of people live in. Facebook is your portal to influencing those people—their behavior, their opinions, their purchases, their relationships. You need to pull the levers without letting Facebook take control of you.
Facebook knows what its members look like, think, enjoy, and visit because they are the world’s largest:
Demographic and psychographic gathering engine.
Even with Google’s gargantuan lead, Facebook will possibly become the world’s largest advertising site, especially as the internet continues its trajectory toward easy mobile device access.
FACEBOOK IS THE ONLY COMPANY THAT OWNS THE MOBILE PHONE
The majority of internet use is now via smartphones and tablets. This is bad news for all the old-school ...