Back to School: Marketers Learning How to Work With Social Networks

A friend and blogging inspiration, Toby Bloomberg, recently sent me a note about a new program she’s developed on behalf of one of her clients, GourmetStation. GourmetStation is a great little company down in Hotlanta. They provide “delicious prepared meals delivered with an upscale worldly spin” – in other words a gourmet experience in the comfort of your own home, without the cost of a private chef. The company attracts an upscale customer base and is trying to expand to new audiences. So they decided to run a test program on MySpace.

In typical Diva Marketing fashion, this is a well thought-out and executed program, and I’ll be fascinated to see the results. It also got me thinking about the concept of Social Network Marketing in general, and how companies large and small can leverage this new media format as an opportunity for greater consumer engagement. Apparently I’m not the only one … there’s been a spate of articles on the topic over the past few days. And of course a number of strong reactions to NewsCorps’ Peter Chernin’s rather stunning comment.

“If you look at virtually any Web 2.0 application, whether its YouTube, whether it’s Flicker, whether it’s Photobucket or any of the next-generation Web applications, almost all of them are really driven off the back of MySpace,” Chernin said at the conference. “There’s no reason why we can’t build a parallel business.”

While I wouldn’t agree that the success of every Web 2.0 company is dependent on its relationship to MySpace, I would suggest that social networking is a critical element in the new marketing landscape. The numbers are hard to argue with, whether you’re talking about 100 million registered users at MySpace or the impact of professional social networking sites like CollectiveX and LinkedIn. Tony Hung summarized it well in a post yesterday, when he said that social networking is creating a new marketing “ecosystem”, and that today’s social networks are similar to instant messaging circa 2001 – they create stickiness (e.g. brand loyalty) because the costs of switching are too high. (You’re locked into networks where your friends or colleagues are.)

So if you’re not Google and you can’t pony up $900 million to ensure your access to MySpace users, what should you do? Find ways for your brand to become part of the conversation in the community. Understand first and foremost that you’re entering a community, not placing a media buy. Be respectful and transparent. Get to know the sensibilities of that community and make sure that your brand presence fits. If you’re targeting teenagers on Facebook your brand presence should look and sound like something a 14 year old would dig. (And yes, I’m told “dig” is back.) If you’re trying to reach professionals to raise awareness of a political issue, then use appropriate creative and copy for that community. If you’re running a promotion, make sure that it’s clear and the benefits are relevant. Burger King’s character on MySpace has some 120,000 friends, not because he’s such a likable guy, but because they’re giving away free episodes of Fox shows like “24”. But most importantly, be realistic about your brand your goals. If you’re a big hit with the AARP crowd, chances are your clickthru rate will be pretty low on Facebook. Be as strategic about your targeting and audience analysis with social networks as you would with any other form of media. It’s early days for social network marketing and a good time to test and learn.

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Marketing,
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Social Networking

Comments

[Toby]

Thanks for the shout out and kind words. After seeing stats that in June MySpace was pulling in almost 30 million uniques in the 25-50 demo we felt it was worth the efforts to develop a grass-roots campaign that used MySpace as a "launch page."

We're a little over a week into the run but we're learning a lot. For instance, the key to unlocking MySpace is in gathering friends .. not necessarily building friendships.
Bulletins that only your friends can see drive the need to collect friends. Which leads up to "pimping" and whoring." It is a whole new world!