- The MySpace Web site
Corporations know they need to begin promoting their brands on the latest social media sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, Second Life and Habbo.
But many fear navigating this maze of ad hoc social networks and virtual worlds, populated by strange looking avatars.
Brand managers should find useful information in the newly published Advertising 2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 World by Tracy Tuten, associate professor of marketing at Longwood University in Farmville, VA.
“It’s not hard. It’s not expensive. But it’s time consuming,” says Tuten in an interview. “You really have to have a dedicated team.”
The rewards may not be easy to measure. But the advertising is cheap, and many of these sites have audiences that should interest consumer brands, says Tuten.
The first question a lot of corporations should ask themselves is where to set up shop. Should they target one of the big, general sites – Facebook, for instance – or find a smaller, more homogeneous audience at a destination such as Gather, which attracts an older crowd? Companies need to profile a site’s audience and compare it with their customers.
A third alternative, of course, is to create a site tailed to a brand – a good idea when consumers feel passionately connected to a product, such as pet food or supplies.
Whatever the choice, companies have to be prepared for an environment in which consumers often control the conversation and can take it away from the talking points laid out in marketing plans. Corporations need to have workers on the front lines, ready to wade into discussions if needed, said Tuten.
Corporations also must be careful not to let their sites – whether inside MySpace or standing independently – stagnate. Web pages need new information to keep pulling people back: announcements, promotions, links to videos, comment boards and sometimes gimmicks such as birthday reminders.
Once a company sets up a Web page or site of its own, it has to decide whether to place more traditional paid advertising alongside its “organic” community development efforts. Sites geared to developing networks of friends can be less friendly to commercial promotions.
“I would really test it,” says Tuten. “Advertising in this space is really cheap.”
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