Comments on: Social Media Growing Strong

By: Forrest

Forrest — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:10:35 +0000

It is interesting to note what sites found Facebook as a more powerful traffic source than Google. It seems the brands that appeal to the demographic most actively involved in social media are finding it as an invaluable traffic tool, while others might have a harder time making an impact on these platforms.

I think Lindsey brings up a good point as well, it will only be a matter of time before more companies are following in P&G and Skittles’ footsteps. I foresee it being a nuisance if a company does not run play it right. TiVo might have to come out with something for us to sift through these new social media commercials!

By: Lindsey

Lindsey — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:13:49 +0000

As evidence of your article (and all our chatter on it the last week) – last night Procter & Gamble held their long awaited “Digital Hack Night” to which they invited 40 of the top digital media executives (and 100 P&G marketing directors) to a social media battle of sorts. The challenge? Which team can sell the most $20 t-shirts for charity with $1,000 media buy limit? The exercise not only raised $50,000 in charity; but was a ‘crash course’ in social media applications for the consumer product conglomerate. Read more about “Digital Hack Night” at AdAge. With savvy big-brand marketers like P&G and Mars (Skittles) leading the way, I think a veritable social media revolution is full swing. My question is – how long before people become wary of big brands posing as personable? When will social media be just another commercial that you fast forward through?

By: Megan McQ

Megan McQ — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:02:59 +0000

Crystal,

I agree that it will be interesting to track whether companies start putting more of their advertising efforts into social media giants—It is good to know that as SEM professionals your firm follow the trends—such as Neilson’s statistic that more people spend time on social media than internet—since eMarketers typically still chose email as the best way to advertise. (1)

It would seem that the platforms are bracing themselves for a new era of advertising. Take for example Facebook’s new pages being optimized for social media marketing platforms (2) or Twitter’s alleged ‘sponsored users’ (3) that will appear following their launch of the real-time search tool (4). In a recent interview, Twitter CEO Eric Schmidt did allude to a potential for increasingly MoSoSo software advertise through tweets using real time location (5) (from my understanding).

Also, because of the recent eMarketer report that indicates an increase of SEM through 2013 (6), hopefully L3 communications has nothing to worry about.

Certainly, Crystal, many people will be seeing where search-marketing dollars will be going. For me, I think it will be more interesting to follow how companies use an integrated marketing communications approach to reach various niche constituencies while simultaneously presenting a consistent brand image through its advertising messages. But on the other hand, it is possible we will see brand image and advertising become increasingly more social as well (7)—the most recent/prevalent example being the Skittles Wiki home page. (8/9)

–Megan McQ, DC

1. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=100360
2. http://mashable.com/2009/03/04/new-facebook-pages/
3. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/07/eric-schmidt-tells-charlie-rose-google-is-unlikely-to-buy-twitter-and-wants-to-turn-phones-into-tvs/
4. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitter_begins_rolling_out_search_and_trends.php
5. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/07/eric-schmidt-tells-charlie-rose-google-is-unlikely-to-buy-twitter-and-wants-to-turn-phones-into-tvs/
6. http://www.emarketer.com/Reports/All/Emarketer_2000559.aspx
7. http://personalbrandingblog.com/using-twitter-for-personal-and-business-branding/
8. http://www.skittles.com/
9. http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/weblog/about_that_skittles_site_lets_all_take_a_deep_breath/