You may not be able to anticipate which campaigns will be a hit with consumers, but there are ways to optimize your brand's chances of being accepted in their digital gathering spots.
As traditional online advertising proves disappointing in its ability to effectively reach users of MySpace, Facebook and other social network sites, a new breed of marketing tools has emerged under the moniker of "social advertising." Unlike other forms of marketing, social advertisements allow brands to harness the immense marketing power of word-of-mouth campaigns.
There is no force more powerful in advertising than the influence of friends and family. Research supports what marketers have known all along -- all the celebrity product endorsements in the world can't impact someone's purchasing decision as strongly as the recommendation of a friend, husband or wife or business partner.
As powerful as they are, however, word-of-mouth campaigns have historically been a result of serendipitous happenstance rather than orchestrated strategy. In the offline world, brands have little control over how word-of-mouth starts, how it spreads and how it translates into sales. Advertisers can do little more than cross their fingers in hopes of generating community buzz.
That was then. In today's digital world, brands have the ability to harness the unmatched power of world-of-mouth advertising. Rather than simply hope for the best, friend and family influence can now be seeded, augmented and directed by marketers. More significantly, word-of-mouth campaigns can also be tracked and measured in the digital world.
Seeding
Offline, finding and gaining the attention of potential customers is very difficult. Turning that audience into evangelizers of a brand or product is nothing short of miraculous.
In the digital arena, however, well-defined communities already exist. Social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook have become modern day town halls where people regularly gather to communicate and share mutual interests. It has been reported that 75 percent of all teenagers in the United States belong to a social network and 25 percent spend at least 2 hours a day in a social network. Social networks currently hold the highest concentration of teenage attention than any other media.
Brands can be welcomed into these communities... but only if they are perceived as being authentic and providing compelling entertainment or utility to the community.
For example, to reach social network users, Converse included an authentic social networking component to its "Open Gym" campaign. The sportswear giant organized real-world basketball competitions for inner-city youth and used Facebook as an online "meeting place" for participants. The kids went to Facebook to learn about Open Gym games in their communities, to organize new games, play virtual basketball and share videos and pictures of their activities with other players. Converse was accepted into the social network community because it offered real value and was perceived as playing a role beyond simply pushing product.
Authenticity goes beyond content. It also refers to the method of message delivery. Unsolicited advertisements such as banner ads and pop-ups have proven to be ineffective in social network environments because of their obtrusive nature. In their place, a new category of social network-friendly marketing tools called "social advertisements" has begun to emerge.
Social advertisements are opt-in vehicles for brands that allow them to be not only tolerated but actually invited into the online community. They are typically web-based mini-applications that gain consumer attention and spread from friend to friend. Social advertisements are easily embedded onto individuals' home pages and public profile pages. Their focus is to entertain (games, videos), provide utility (information, data) or stimulate communication within the group (chat, message boards, wikis) rather than overtly push a product or service. Of course, the brand messaging is always present. Social advertisements can create vibrant sub-communities around specific entertainment properties, such as a musician or band, sports team, TV show, movie or, in fact, the brand itself.