By daring to become an early adopter. Social networking in particular is one realm into which many businesses were loath to venture a few years ago, but its appeal for marketing--especially in a sour economy--is undeniable.
For example, Twitter was launched in 2006, but Nielsen research shows that between April 2008 and April 2009, Twitter achieved a growth of 37 times more minutes spent logged on the site--higher than the growth of any other social networking site. And with over 200 million active users and an estimated value of $10 billion, Facebook has gone from what the New York Times calls a "dorm room creation" to an organization that commands the attention of business professionals all over the world. So how do you get started? If you're Pizza Hut, you hire a tech-savvy intern to help you out. They created a 'Twintern' position that will focus on social media tools like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to gauge popular opinion of the brand. Not only are these tools all free, they're widely used by individuals in Pizza Hut's target market. And since college students are fearless early adopters, their intimate knowledge of how to infiltrate and use social networks with cachet can prove far more valuable than standard marketing material. Existing companies can leverage the power and popularity of social networking by integrating it into an existing framework. MTV teamed up with Twitter for the "Alexa Chung Show," which will post a live feed of Twitter reactions to celebrity guests and other content on-screen. And apparel company Marshalls enlisted the services of cross-dressing Internet star Liam Sullivan (or Kelly, as he's known on YouTube) for a 4-minute promo video that they hope will blend in seamlessly with the YouTube community. Being an early adopter doesn't come without risks, however. Burger King found that out the hard way during their Whopper Sacrifice promotion, which encouraged Facebook users to un-friend 10 individuals on their friends list in exchange for a free Whopper from the fast food chain. It sounds like a decent publicity stunt, but a crucial portion of the publicity came from the fact that each spurned friend received a notification on Facebook that they'd been ditched for a Whopper. Facebook disabled the notifications, citing a violation of privacy standards, and the Burger King Whopper Sacrifice promotion was withdrawn as a social networking fail.
Discuss
Amanda Stillwagon on June 4, 2009, 12:07 PM
It’s hard to deny noticing how social sites are affecting the way businesses conduct marketing. But once you weigh the results against the minimal costs, if any, you can see why companies are taking this route.
Kayla Pitt on June 4, 2009, 9:14 PM
social networking are possibly the biggest online reveloution in the past decade. The way they have changed the internet, making it more interactive. I think has chnaged the interent forever
Arthur Bland on June 7, 2009, 11:21 PM
No wonder Marissa. Social networking (ONLINE) has helped a lot of small business owners gain Web presence and market their products and/or services in a really cost effective manner. ;)
harry thomson on June 10, 2009, 4:28 AM
The evolve of social network sites like facebook, myspace have really change the world of Internet. Its not the world of messenging anymore, is the world of social networking. Kudos to them!
Kate McLaughlin on June 11, 2009, 8:08 AM
Always really interesting to see how big companies are coming down to where there customers are. Some really great and unique marketing programs have come about (and also some that aren’t so good but lead to great case studies of what not to do) The worst thing a company can do is jump into a social media space ‘just to be there’ without understanding how the community will react… for that you need to talk to people in the know who can help guide businesses small and large into this space safely
Mary Dorgant on June 11, 2009, 11:39 PM
Facebook is/was a great way for me to keep in touch with friends and relatives that live far away. I have yet to use it for any other reason than to simply keep in touch. When I first joined Facebook, I would log on every night and write my status, make comments and send messages.
After a few months, I started losing interest, and I noticed that other people who joined at the same time as I did, were not posting very much either. It began to remind me of those “family update” Christmas letters that some people send out. You could say the novelty has worn off. Are people using Facebook to “advertise” themselves or their companies?
I’d rather not discuss Twitter. Just the idea of getting constant updates from any person, group or company annoys me. Don’t get me wrong, I love my computer for news and discussion and my Palm Pilot to be in touch, but Twitter is not for me. I’d rather be living life than texting about it and reading other peoples tweets.
Alex Jenkins on June 13, 2009, 6:31 PM
I have had to turn off some of my social networking sites because they didn’t take off and others did. It is impossible to keep them all up to date. If you are an early adopter you take a chance on it not making the grade and you need to get onto another platform to catch up with everyone else.
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