When I log in to check my Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or YouTube accounts, I spend most of my attention, however skewed it may be, on sorting through new friend requests or status updates. I’ve never thought of using any of them to find new brands of clothing, food or television shows to start watching.
For the companies trying to advertise their products through 140-character “tweets” or fan pages, that’s the biggest problem.
While social networking Web sites have seen surging membership, it remains to be seen if this translates directly into a lucrative surge in revenue for advertisers and their companies. In fact, as an average user of several of these sites, the only time I notice an ad is when I’m looking for a way to close the pop-up window or skip past the commercial. Until companies can discover new ways to incorporate their advertising on networking Web sites, there is little hope that a member of any social network will become loyal to a product.
As soon as I log into my account, my MySpace home page is lined with dozens of linked ads, many of which have gathered my posted interests and end up offering me everything from movie tickets to graphic T-shirts of my favorite TV characters.
This is a result of a $900-million three-year advertising deal that Google made with MySpace. However, it ends in July 2010, and according to a Reuters news article, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said other changes in the marketplace could halt any renewal of the deal. “We have more tricks up our sleeve now,” Schmidt said.
I can only assume that the “tricks” he is referring to are the creation of more successful ads than the ones they’ve been using, seeing as I ignore every single Google-sponsored link that MySpace offers me.
On the other hand, it’s only the new and unfamiliar products that I find myself ignoring. I’m a “fan” of the American Eagle clothing store on Facebook, placing me in the 52 percent of social network users who do the same with other brands, according to a new study by Anderson Analytics. While this may suggest that social networking Web sites can be used effectively by companies, there’s another factor at play: loyalty.
I’ve been buying American Eagle jeans long before I started adding applications on Facebook. I joined the page shortly after its launch because I had already been shopping there for years and wanted in on their special offers. It wasn’t something I stumbled upon through a random sponsored link on the home page.
In order for a company to successfully reach social network users, it needs to play not only to its audience, but to the site they’re using. Companies should incorporate ads and offers more seamlessly into the services offered by the social Web site. Despite the mixed reviews on its deal with MySpace, Google has been able to utilize YouTube, which it acquired in 2006, in a variety of ways.
Featured on the home page are sponsored videos ranging from movie trailers to ads for skin products. There are also the ads that roll during a video, like the ones that offer links to sites where you can purchase the song to the music video you’re watching.
The reason this method works is simple: People go to YouTube to watch, share and comment on videos. Persuading someone to click on a sponsored video on a video-sharing Web site is a lot easier than trying to draw attention to a randomly generated Google ad. And when that video is passed along the other social networking sites and collects thousands of views, then the advertisement has a better chance at effective exposure.
I can’t help but think that if companies stopped lamenting the demise of instantly successful commercials or traditional advertising, and just tailored their messages to the Web site they want to use, they’d have a lot more success.
Social networking sites may not be able to create instant consumer loyalty and brand awareness, but they can more than succeed in facilitating it over time. As soon as more companies realize this, I’ll be sure to add them as friends on MySpace, become their fan on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter. And more than likely, I’ll be “following” them into a store to buy their stuff.
Got a product that needs “tweeting”? E-mail Louth at klouth@media.ucla.edu.