Learning and sharing... by Zoe Sands

Ever since Facebook declared its desire to purchase Twitter some months ago, there’s been a flurry of activity within the social networking environment and much speculation on who will be buying who. Most recently saw Facebook announce the befriending of FriendFeed, which appears on the surface to be a friendly acquisition, but I’m sure Facebook’s motives are much deeper in terms of acquiring the skills and innovation and then eventually making FriendFeed an approved Facebook app rather than a separate entity. Now we see MySpace firmly stepping into the acquisition arena by taking over iLike, carving out its niche and supremacy in the Music market and becoming the first point of call for any new and aspiring acts. Giving MySpace a further advantage over Facebook, looks like the management team at Facebook has failed to recognise the importance of entertainment and lifestyle for its users. Will we still want to simply update friends and family with the basic functionality offered by Facebook? Hopefully Facebook will reassess its acquisition programme and look for opportunities to broaden its appeal and service offerings.

In conclusion I think we will see a lot of acquisitions over the coming months/years within the social network arena with the big players trying to carve out stronger business portfolios in much the same way as Google and Yahoo has done over the past five years.

Links to related articles:
http://blog.friendfeed.com/2009/08/friendfeed-accepts-facebook-friend.html
http://www.revolutionmagazine.com/news/927507/MySpace-acquire-iLike-20-million-take-Facebook/

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Online display advertising has been around since 1994. The first banner ad was produced by AT&T and launched on 25 October 1994, the main aim of the campaign was to monetize its website through this new communication opportunity. The campaign received an amazing 8% click through rate (CTR), which is unheard of nowadays. There is so much competition in the marketplace, with visitors only clicking on ads which interest them. It is no longer a novelty to see flashing banner ads and so people rarely click unless they have a need or issue to resolve. According to DoubleClick the average CTR you should expect across all online display formats is 0.10%, far less than the 8% AT&T achieved in 1994. Over recent years banner advertising has evolved and now includes many different formats; video, mobile, database data driven creatives and chat now banner ads. There is currently a lot of buzz at the moment on how to penetrate social media through online display advertising.

What is social media advertising?

Contrary to what Zuckerberg believes, Facebook did not invent social advertising by creating the “Beacon” system, this is simply contextual advertising based on the information provided in the users’ Facebook profile. A lot of advertisers have reported that Facebook inventory is cheaper than mainstream advertising networks. However, there’s a reason why Facebook’s inventory is so much cheaper, and that’s because there is a lot of click fraud and poor results/targeting. You would be better off buying ad inventory over the Google Adsense network; achieving a better return on your investment.

Social media advertising is basically placing ad inventory using the social networking platforms to engage with your target audience. There are a couple of good options which have recently been developed, these are:

• Feedburner Twitter Ad Unit via Google
• Social Media Ad Units from IDG

Types of Social Media Advertising

There are 3 main types of advertising ad units:

• Friend to friend
• Peer to peer
• Community to community

What are the challenges of social media advertising?

• Social media advertising is currently limited to a few ad networks, but new opportunities are opening up.
• Not all networks have an open platform and may not accept these dynamic banner ads.
• Be careful of execution and messaging – do not use this format to sell instead use it for engagement and you will get a better response. As people who frequently use the social networking platforms are quite unforgiving when blatantly sold to in their choosen network.

Benefits and Takeways

• It is a cost effective advertising format for high impact branding and more targeted medium than traditional online display advertising.
• Social actions are far more powerful because they come from trusted sources – friends, family and colleagues. People tend to believe their inner circle of contacts rather than trusting corporations and brands.
• Online display is no longer about broadcasting messages; these messages are now transferred through social networks.
• This advertising opportunity allows advertisers to start messaging in the target’s chosen social network.
• Viral messages created with benefit and meaning will have an ongoing life.

If you would like further social media advice for me, then please contact me via Twitter or LinkedIn.

Nothing should really surprise me any more when it comes to social networking mistakes. In Today’s The Mail on Sunday (5 July 2009) it was announced that the new Head of MI6 (UK) has been exposed by a major personal security breach after his wife published intimate family photographs and details on Facebook. A few weeks ago an intern at Habitat (UK) damaged the brand by posting headline news #hashtags against unrelated product promotional tweets in Twitter. As a result of this mistake there has been no activity on the Habitat Twitter account since 24 June 2009. Social networking is a powerful tool and should be treated with caution, so many people are quite happy to announce absolutely anything via social media, with some posts referrring to stories they wouldn’t expose in a face to face environment.

Why do people post things that would not be acceptable in traditional media and reveal all within the social networking sites without thinking? People need to remember that social media is an important communication channel, and can open up many opportunities both positive and negative and therefore should be controlled and treated with respect. You should think of social networking in the same context as issuing a press release or an advertising campaign, these are planned and controlled and so should any social media announcement. Think before posting anything and ask yourself “would I be happy for this story to be published on prime time TV?” If not, then don’t announce this story and exposure your personal and or corporate brand to negative issues.

If you do encounter negativity as a result of a post made on a social networking site, then a damage limitation strategy should be applied with timely responses and appropriate actions made in order to protect your personal and or corporate brand.

If you would like further social media advice for me, then please contact me via Twitter or LinkedIn.