Social Network Marketing – Great, but Not for Everyone?

MySpace, Bebo, Facebook– these channels are becoming a part of the marketing mix (at least in thought, if not in action yet), and considering the size of these communities and the traffic they attract, it comes as no surprise. While Google pipped Microsoft to the post by clinching a deal with MySpace, Microsoft is certainly not letting go of what will inevitably grow to be a good marketing channel. It has signed an agreement for the exclusive distribution of banner ads on Facebook, which has a registered user base of over 9 million.

Like affiliate marketing, social network marketing is becoming a separate powerful marketing channel; and again, like affiliate marketing, leveraging these networks may be closely tied to search marketing (though it doesn’t have to be that way). From what we know of the demographics, this avenue is not for all kinds of companies and all kinds of products. For example, music, DVDs, iPODs, student loans – most likely yes; mortgages, grocery– most likely, not.

I think venues such as MySpace and Facebook provide a nice platform for individual affiliate publishers to drive traffic/ sales. However, as things are today, these may not be as effective a channel for the larger affiliate publishers (companies) — in terms of scale and costs. But it is certainly something we cannot be completely detached from, because I suspect a sustainable and scalable model for large affiliates to emerge sooner rather than later.

courtesy: trafficjunction.co.uk