Make Networks Work For You

Social media marketing is a hot topic among marketers and company executives who are both fascinated and perplexed by this unruly, sometimes scary, but promising set of marketing tools. As traditional ad budgets shrink and fixed forms of on- and off-line advertising continue to yield less than desired ROI, marketers are seeking innovative ways to engage with customers. So how can marketers leverage social networks to generate value from their investments? It’s a matter of finding the right chemistry to make the biggest bang with audiences.

Social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace are exploding in popularity and are the fastest growing web destinations. Web users are spending considerably more time on these sites then on company-generated sites, particularly among youth who engage in interactive communication via community sites. They are also influencing older generations to join in social media communities.

Social media is the digital version of real-world social interaction and includes all media that connects people through dialogue and participation. Social media is unique because users create it and consume it as active recipients. Sites classified as social media include networking, blogging, community, fan interest, photo sharing, galleries, mobile networking, review sites and more. So how do you tap into this potential for your business?

Social media offers great branding potential because it allows marketers to target consumers according to interests and keeps brands current and relevant by association. For marketers that find the magic formula, social media also presents the opportunity to leverage investments and engage with consumers in ways never before imagined (or possible) through traditional vehicles.



Social media challenges online marketers who want to retain brand integrity but extend their brand associations by appealing to audiences on their own terms and conditions. To entice new members to the “brand tribe” and exhort them to spread the viral brand message, marketers must be willing to loosen their firm grips on the brand image and allow room for creative play, ownership and interpretation.

Letting go can be a scary proposition, but for companies that do can reap amazing rewards. Take, for instance, the success of Burger King’s “Subservient Chicken” campaign which launched their TenderCrisp Sandwich and tied in with their “have it your way” message. BK’s online point man dressed in a funky chicken suit and willing to do (almost) anything visitors asked of him has generated over 450 million hits and a significant increase in chicken sales that can be directly linked to the success of the site. This campaign shows how successful an advertiser can be when they entertain and let people discover the message and brand.

Advertisers who successfully insinuate their brands into social media can see huge returns, including the ability to precisely target consumers, gain valuable instant consumer feedback, and measure the strength and quantity of these interactions. At the same time, social media also frees marketers to create their own media-rich channels to tell brand stories in new, creative ways that aren’t restricted by the time/cost dictates of traditional media formats.

That said, the returns are not yet predictable and even marketers of world-famous brands are finding they can’t simply slap a banner ad on Facebook and expect great results. Despite the great strides (and wads of cash) that EBay and Amazon have invested in creating unique applications on forums such as Facebook, the returns have been difficult or impossible to measure.

In the final analysis when the numbers are crunched, the market determines what media vehicles thrive or perish. Just as it took a really big bang to create the (fairly) ordered universe in which we live, the web galaxy is going through a period of adjustment as marketing vehicles jostle for position and strive to determine how best to give advertisers fair value and (fairly) predictable ROI.

Social media is not the right forum for every type of business, no matter how much they’d love to join the party. However for marketers of socially oriented products and services, as well promotions, contests and brand launches with rewards attached to them, the social media universe presents an opportunity to get the biggest bang for their bucks in advertising history. They just need to find the right chemistry to connect with this universe’s inhabitants in ways that are genuine, engaging, entertaining, and distinctly non-commercial.

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