Traditional marketing campaigns have been very unsuccessful on social networking sites. Sites like mySpace, Facebook, You Tube and LinkedIn offer a wonderful opportunity to expand a business, however, you cannot approach the same marketing techniques.
According to a survey commissioned by the AMA, 47% of consumers said they would visit social networking sites to search and discuss gift ideas, and 29% said they would buy products there. Nancy Costopulos, chief marketing officer at the American Marketing Association said that social networking sites “provide some of the most powerful word-of-mouth- marketing opportunities that there have ever been.”
A Forrester Research study implies that overall the ROI of the social networking marketing campaign has been extremely low. According to Charlene Li, co-author of the report, “It is clear that successful social networking site campaigns do not follow traditional marketing rules.” She went on to say that since these website are not passive, they cannot be used as mediums, like websites of old. The report infers that marketers should mimic the music acts that are successful in promoting their product with gossip and answering questions.
The average person is exposed to over 10,000 marketing messages on any given day. Obviously, traditional marketing techniques have a purpose, but with little opportunity to capitalize with the competition, social networking marketing will play an even greater role in a company’s success. These websites promote interactions with other users which effectively spreads the word across multiple people.
There are some concerns that social networking sites could be a fad, thus making marketing attempts very useless. Some argue that a few years from now sites like Myspace will be gone while the new hot thing takes over. According to David Bell, a marketing professor at Wharton, “There is a fad or a fashion component to all these networks. So will come and go.” Nonetheless, the popularity of these sites could predict what consumers will be like in the future as baby boomers continue to age.
How should marketers respond to the unique opportunities that exist on social networking sites? First, forget everything that has been “learned” in traditional marketing campaigns. People use these types of sites to interact. People drive the success of these sites so why would want to see another pop-up or sales pitch? Instead, companies should things that would be interesting to its consumers. A spoof of an insurance company’s caveman would be something that would generate buzz and draw attention. With YouTube, this could be done for free. How about a rumor site similar to what Starbucks or Enterprise‘s discussion board? The opportunities are endless in the this new frontier! Go get em’!
Posted by James Seay 
