Marketing ≠ Advertising
A recent article in the New York Times talked about marketers challenges reaping the supposed rewards of social networking. The piece talked about the fact that while 130 million spend their time on Facebook, advertising there is getting anemic response rates. Is that so surprising? People go on social networks to connect with friends, share photos, network, etc. There is really no value for them is engage with advertising. But a lot of brands are viewing social networks as yet another medium to push their messages to consumers. Sure they create a group page, but why should consumers care. They’re on social networks to spend time with what they DO care about - each other.
What’s more interesting then the anemic response rates of display ads on social nets is the seeming lack of objectives set by marketers who put them there in the first place. The headline of the article “Advertisers Face Hurdles on Social Network Sites” epitomizes the problem. Marketing is not advertising. Marketing is about creating demand. And in the chaotic, micro-attention-span world of the social nets, if brands want to play, they need to give consumers something to play with. Social networks are vibrant and vital places. Static ads or thinly veiled attempts to ‘build community’ will not fly. Games as a form of social media are a natural way for brands to make themselves interesting while giving social netizens a reason to connect with their friends. A simple game we did recently ran on a sponsors site for only about a month. During that time more than 70,000 people played it and 85% of them voluntarily entered into dialog with the brand, and 50% passed the game on to a friend. The sponsor didn’t advertise to these folks. They marketed to them. And in doing so they made their brand more interesting, got consumers to take notice and engage with their brand.
Posted on 01.13.09 to Trends, Effectiveness. Author: tim. Subscribe to follow comments on this post. No comments yet. Add your thoughts or trackback from your own site.
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