Social networks, free for their members, tend to rely on advertising for their revenue.
Because of demographic information collected by the social networks, advertisers are
able to target their adverts to a particular audience.
Applications are another way to market products. Creating a useful application that
is relevant to a product, can expose a whole new audience to a company’s offering, as
well as allowing a company to collect detailed information on their users. However,
although Facebook applications were the big marketing story of 2007, there are few
success stories to emerge from the buzz. It’s very much a developing market.
Profiles are not limited to people. Bands, for example, have found immense success
with creating MySpace profiles for their band and using the profile as a means of
connecting with their current and potential fan base.
On Facebook, Facebook Pages “provide a customized presence on Facebook for
your band, brand, small business, and more.”
Marketers can also use social networks to identify how users are perceiving or
interacting with their brand, and open up new avenues of communication with them.
For example, if you are marketing a bar, look to see how many people are using a
social network to organise events at your bar. Find a way of rewarding those who are
bringing you extra customers.
Social networks are also an avenue for members to voice frustrations and annoyances, and these should be closely watched by marketers to gauge sentiment.
I believe that a social media consultant must be attuned to the company goals and aspirations if he or she is to represent them on their social media channels. I also think that outsourcing social media marketing is a good idea for a company looking to specialize in their core business. In any case, most businesses outsource marketing and advertising and I don’t see why social media marketing should be any different. You just need to be actively involved to ensure that you are represented in the way that you want
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