Social Networking

There has been a virtual explosion of social networking sites in the past couple of years. Even the big players like Google, Yahoo and MSN are getting into it.With so much interest in how social networks work, one begins to wonder if there is marketing potential within these social networks? I’ve been watching social networking for some time now. In fact I’m a member of various social networking sites including MySpace and LinkedIn just to name two. I joined partly because I wanted to see what they were, but more importantly to see what impact social networking would have on SEM in the coming years. I’ve been a member of various services for some time and the reach these sites have is incredible. For example, from my LinkedIn network of seven people I have an expanded network of over 12,600 people. Imagine that – I’m only a click or two away from close to 13,000 other people who share my similar interests ranging from what I like to watch on TV to work I could provide to them. Through my connections and their connections, I’m connected to people ranging from the American Cancer Society, to Sun Microsystems to the University of Texas to Google.

Recruiters Using Social Media

Check out these stats from a personal contact in the recruiting field.

What social networks do recruiters use to source candidates?

1,022 use LinkedIn (a whopping 97%)
391 use Facebook (37%)
228 use MySpace (22%)
28 use Friendster (2%)
17 Use Hi5 (1%)
13 use Bebo (1%)

You had better upgrade your social network pages so you present yourself in a business like fashion!

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

Dueling Social Marketing Definitions

On the heels of Jay Bernhardt’s explanation of why the CDC uses the term “health marketing” instead of “social marketing” and Craig Lefebvre’s take on the term (“What the heck is health marketing?”), comes a new offensive on the definition of social marketing from the other direction.

Jupiter Research has just launched a new Social Marketing research service that will “provide marketers and site owners with recommendations on how to profit from the use of consumer generated content, blogs, podcasts and other emerging media tools.” Apparently they didn’t get the memo that there is already a long-established field called social marketing that uses marketing to bring about health and social change.

The burgeoning use of the term “social marketing” to refer to social media has already created confusion among techie types I know who have misunderstood what type of work I do. This leads to people talking past each other, thinking that the other knows what they mean when they are not on the same page at all. It’s as if one group of people suddenly started calling a new kind of dog a “cat;” they are very similar in general — four legs, furry, domesticated — but in the details they are quite different.

As a result of my initial discussion of this issue in March, the folks at Forrester Research decided to change the name of their “Social Marketing Bootcamp” to “Social Computing Bootcamp,” and they no longer use the term “social marketing” to avoid exactly this type of confusion. While I agree that “social marketing” would have been a great term to adopt if it did not already mean something else, it’s about 35 years too late for that.

I hope that, like Forrester, Jupiter will take another look at their erroneous terminology and take another stab at coming up with a term that is clear and accurate. Social network marketing, social media, consumer generated media, digital marketing — whatever they want to call it is fine. It would help potential clients find them instead of the many firms who offer social marketing services (using the real definition). And people won’t assume that Jupiter does health & social change research when they mention their social marketing research services. Do a google search for “social marketing” and you’ll see that for pages and pages of results there is nothing but links for companies and organizations working toward social change.

So if you are a social marketer, please join me in leaving a comment for Emily Riley, the lead analyst on the Social Marketing Service at Jupiter Research to let her know why they should consider changing the name, as well as letting other companies know when they use the term incorrectly.

It’s not just a matter of semantics. It’s about all of us doing the work we do best and making sure that the right people know about it. Everyone wins when clarity reigns.

courtesy: www.social-marketing.com