Forrester Research Inc., analyst Charlene Li makes the case that social networking sites, notably MySpace and Facebook, are not just for those targeting the Gen Y and Gen X demographics. She also offers a case study that e-tailers can use as a resource for reaching this audience.
In her report, “How Consumers Use Social Networks,” she states that half of all adult daily users of these sites are interested in seeing marketer profiles, compared with a little more than a third of “daily youth social site users.”
Moreover, because social networking site users are naturally viral, it makes sense to take advantage of the audience. According to the study, 50 percent of adult users often tell their friends about products, while 61 percent of those interested in marketer profiles do the same.
To show how marketers can successfully tap this market, the report outlines a case study of Victoria Secret’s so-called “Pink” campaign. Though the company certainly isn’t a small business, the steps they took can be implemented without a Fortune 500 budget.
The report offers the following tips for social network marketing efforts:
- Dispense with traditional Web marketing tactics. Don’t make the mistake of simply importing what you consider to be the most innovative elements of your Web site, such as, for instance streaming video or contests, to your profile page.
“Social networking site users want to join in a conversation or start a relationship, not be spectators on the sidelines.
Victoria’s Secret uses its presence on Facebook and MySpace to encourage users to talk about their latest lingerie purchases, upload Pink-related photos and download backgrounds and badges for their own pages to further encourage viral spreading of the campaign,” says Li in the report.
- Encourage “friending.” The authors of the report admit that this seems silly, but suggest it nonetheless. “On the surface, it seems somewhat ridiculous to become a “friend” of a brand — after all, friendships exist between people, not between a person and a company,” the study says.
“But marketer pages on social networking sites can be a place where friends develop a close relationship with the brand.” For example, the Pink Victoria’s Secret profiles had 203,000 friends on MySpace and 314,000 members on Facebook at the end of March 2007, according to Li.
This means that the Pink logo appears on more than 500,000 user profiles, further encouraging users’ friends to click on it and visit the Victoria’s Secret profile page.
- Regularly refresh content. These types of marketing campaigns are not based on a “set it and forget it” model. It’s quite the opposite; they take a lot of maintenance because you have to keep content continually updated and engaging to keep visitors coming back over and over again.
In the case of Victoria’s Secret, the report says the company used profiles, feature updates, merchandise highlights and updates and promotions, as well as photos from the latest Pink celebrity parties to keep content fresh.
Photo by MSDesigns.
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