Social networking sites present new opportunities for promotions

Social networking sites are fast becoming the main stage for marketers eagerly looking for a way to find out what’s organically going on between consumers and to create promotions in unexpected territory. Their rise is similar to the interest generated by “word of mouth,” which captured marketers’ imagination three years ago and has continued to flourish ever since.

Marketing will spend about $280 million on advertising and marketing on U.S. networking sites this year, according to marketing research firm eMarketer. As a result, sites are scrambling to handle this sudden rush of commerce. In August, YouTube began selling “brand channels” that let marketers showcase videos that support a brand’s image. MySpace is testing a service that lets independent bands post songs on their profile page for members to buy. Video posting site Revver attaches ads to the end of members’ videos, and then pays the member each time a viewer clicks through the ad, encouraging members to post their videos (and the attached ads) on the Internet.

What does this mean for your company?

The playing field is expanding and there’s a new team in town. So it makes sense to become familiar with these key players:

• Connectors – these are people who are all about nurturing their friendships so they won’t share information their friends don’t want, so the people they choose to tell are more receptive to the message.
• Trendspreaders – those consumers identified as those more likely to share new finds with friends versus the traditional trendsetter. About 10-12 percent of consumers are this kind of “connector” with bigger social networks and a propensity to chat.
• Social Butterflies – Those who like to know about new stuff first. Leading word of mouth media networks like BzzAgent and Proctor & Gamble’s Tremor, actively seek SBs to join their ranks. Their key attributes are inquisitiveness, connectedness and persuasiveness.

Our take-away advice: Social networking is rapidly becoming a viable channel to drive word of mouth.

Source: “Should Friends Be Marketers?” Betsy Spethmann, PROMO magazine, October 1, 2006

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