Eggcerpts From Natalie: Social Networking Marketing From Gen Y’s Perspective
Written on April 1, 2008 by Susan Payton
by Natalie Grbic
Being part of Generation Y, I encounter all the buzz about trendy social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. These sites have become extremely popular in today’s internet world. They give users the opportunity to stay in contact with old friends, advertise, and meet people. MySpace, with over 70 million users, is used by teens, bands, and businesses from all around the world. Facebook is geared toward college students where users can interact with other students from their school or even find old classmates that attend other universities around the country.
As a college student, I began using MySpace and Facebook my Freshman year in college. I find it very helpful to interact with classmates, stay in constant contact with old friends, and find useful information with the advertisements that are displayed.
As a consumer, I have found businesses marketing to me:
-Some advertisements have linked me to helpful websites for school such as dictionary.com.
-I have come across ads that display new trendy clothing. For example, advertisements for Victoria’s Secret pop up, and their ads have led me to their website where I purchased clothing.
-I have also clicked on ads about new movies premiering and even the best deal for flights.
There are, however, some things that annoy me about these ads on networking sites. On MySpace, a large number of businesses and bands send out hundreds of friends requests each day and try to advertise their products/services. For example, I just received a friends request from a new restaurant in town and a band that is located across the country. This may be a good advertising concept, but better targeting could keep these businesses from annoying social network users.
Susan
Advertising on social networking sites can be effective if your buyers:
*Are 12-25
*Can buy your products online
*Are tech savvy
Local businesses can have success marketing on social networking sites, but to avoid the annoyance Natalie mentions, these campaigns should be carefully targeted. No one outside a 30 mile radius will come see your punk show or your bake sale. So don’t be annoying and mass add friends or contacts just for the sake of having a wider audience.
It’s like I say about email contacts: better to have 50 highly targeted contacts than 50,000 people that you annoy regularly.
Get creative! Marketing on these sites doesn’t have to be paid advertising. My client BabysHere has a FaceBook profile that has drawn a fair amount of traffic and new customers.
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