Facebook, mySpace, LinkedIN, YouTube and other social media are quickly exploding in popularity. Marketers everywhere are looking for ways to exploit these “social networks” for their advantage.
Recently, I discussed how amazing Burger King’s Whopper Freakout campaign has been. The idea of using a combination of real people and the Internet is simply amazing. Like most website that I enjoy, I gave it a thumbs up on StumbleUpon. Great idea, Burger King deserves the credit for thinking outside of the box. Then it dawned upon me. How far will marketers go to reach their consumers? When do marketers cross the line with deceptive marketing.
First, I am not accusing Burger King of deceptive marketing. In fact, with their new campaign I have not seen a lot of traffic, until late about its viral campaign. A few weeks ago, there was very little on the Internet about it. There were no videos on YouTube. No silly games on Facebook to share with friends. Very few blogs spreading the word about the campaign. In my opinion, it really seems like a great effort to use its biggest customers in promoting it’s number one product, the Whopper. While some may question the customers and/or employees, it delivered a relevant message, the Whopper is good and every loves it.
Other companies, however, have continued to push the edge when it comes to social media. Consider the reviews that are posted on amazon.com. They provide very good information about the product a person is looking to purchase. Supposedly, this is an individuals personal opinion. Nonetheless, there are numerous occurrences of people giving favorable reviews due to a connection with the author, company, or product. Are these reviews really helping anyone out? What about the videos on YouTube that are appear to be real, but secretly ad machines for the big companies (remember Cadbury’s Gorilla ad campaign, now Wonderbra is taking a similar approach)? They come dangerously close to deceive consumers with their “realistic” feel.
The spread of social media will most likely continue to strengthen existing brands. On Facebook, I constantly find myself taking quizzes, or promoting products (especially music and movies) for free. Now imagine how many people are getting paid to do these same things. Then consider this, the web has given marketers an easy way of promoting their products. Marketers would be wise to look at how social media can expand the current business.
What ways do you market your brand with social media?
For my loyal blog readers and/or subscribers you might have noticed that some time has passed since my last blog. For some reason, I have been going through a very long writer’s block and my inspiration has been minimal. To break out of this writer’s block, I decided to share the top ten reasons that I blog. The picture above may be a tad misleading as I never blog for money!
Posted by James Seay 
