Is Marketing via social networks a bad idea or not that successful?
Firstly lets go through a few life scenarios before making comments about which medium is better to get your message across. Many marketers go with the buzz after having read a few articles on the internet or when some media company has spoken about this social network or that. Entering the social media environment as marketers and not people is the first downfall with marketing to a social network.
As Marketers we like to try new things, but what we fail to realise is we are trying the same old tactics except in a different medium. In the good old days we made brochures to tell our customers about what we did; now if you don’t have a website people look at you in shock. Having a website isbetter, faster, more flexible, convenient for everybody. No need to have multiple copies of the same document but a website and a brochure are they not the same, its capturing information to give out to people. We run ads in magazines, billboards to tell the world what we are launching or what we are upto; now we also run search ads and banner ads and while it’s more cost-effective, isn’t it the same thing “conveying your message across to people”. Before direct mail was the way to go, now we focus on email newsletters. Isn’t all this the same process, adapted for a new medium?
Social media is just another new medium for more or less the same activity.As a marketer you need to understand this media to fully utilise itspotential. You need to realize that nobody and that includes you goes to watch a movie to check out the advertisements prior to the commencement of the movie or watch television in the hope of viewing TV commercials, or go to your mailbox to read email newsletters. The same way no one registers on a social network to talk about various brands.
Social Networks are powerfull if you truly understand the model. Its efficient and gives you an insight of how to effectively understand your audience. The first most important thing that you need to acknowledge is that you are speaking to people and that people like to listen to their friends and acquiantances not to strangers. It’s the consumer, not the content. You need to sponsor the consumer not the content, you have to go to where the people are and attach yourself to what they want to do and not the other way round. So if the consumer is reading a blog about how to impress a girl or is watching a video of people taking their clothes off, or someone acting really silly then you need your brand to be there. No one is going to judge you because you are visible on a blog that speaks about Love. Infact they will notice you.
Think about it if you are wanting to learn how to market on a social networking website and you come across an article that speaks about this. In the middle of this article you see a Brand lets say “ChillX.com – your social network partner” or a fictatious brand ” 1 Degree – The most purest form of water” will you not notice this?
Within social networks the future lies in vertical niches, where people connect around other like minded people. As a marketer you need to target various social networks and not just one or two. Its about making sure you target a wide variety of people who are your potential target audience. In an article i read about Nike they put it perfectly, you have to put out a lot and leave it up to the community to decide how they want to engage. Go where people want to know more about your company.
Once you decide to give it a go within the social networking space you do not have to be the Guru. You need to work with the team that you plan advertising and participating in. So if you plan advertising with Social Network A then work with their team to structure your campaign don’t go blindly into it by reading a few tutorials.
Each social network may have a different advertising model and the best way to capture and make your campaign successful is working with the specific team. When running a campaign on a social network its important for you to understand that you need to be part of a community for more than 3 months to see results. There is no quick way imagine trying to build a relationship with work collegues yu are not going to achieve this in a day are you? The same applies to people on a social network. If your brand or your client’s brand is participating people will talk about you in their chats with friends or will participate in your survey campaign or your competitions because they see you are their friend more than a top notch company talking at them.
