Comments on: The Rise And Rise Of Social Media As A Marketing Channel

By: Hello YouTube, Please Come In, Make Yourself at Home | Search Engine Optimisation & Online Marketing Ireland .:. Red Cardinal

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:15:03 +0000

[...] if we needed any more confirmation that rich media is the hottest ticket on the [...]

By: Gavin

Gavin — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 21:05:39 +0000

Thing about Bebo is that it has too many user restrictions but if your advertising via their channels you could have some success.

As for Myspace, its a powerful marketing tool to drive visitors to a site. Even chitika have copped on and released new ads that can be used on Myspace profiles opening more doors for revenue.

Having a 15 year old sister as a lab rat has helped me with social networking sites.

By: Richard Hearne

Richard Hearne — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 20:05:36 +0000

Hi Justin

You’re quite right, but there is a very subtle yet powerful distinction between social media marketing and broadcast advertising. I think we’ll agree that if we simply put up a brochure or corporate site onto MySpace (or similar) it wouldn’t generate any return. Creating something entertaining and interesting will though.

I think when you look at sites like Digg it is fairly obvious that direct traffic has little value. But indirect value (backlinks, buzz, brand recognition) can be very useful.

I cant say how successful the movie strategy was, but I think that social media are particularly suited to media industries. The YouTube stats give some idea of the popularity of user-generated (and I’m sure planted) content.

I don’t know of any drivers in MySpace’s traffic at the time you mention – you could ask over at the Hitwise blog. They’re pretty cool for responding to comments and emails. But looking at the graph you mention I can’t really see a very high correlation TBH? Some corresponding peaks and troughs maybe, but not a very strong correlation that I can see.

Rgds
Richard

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 19:11:43 +0000

I realize this post is about the effective use of social networking to promote a movie, but just because some studio finally figured out that posting promotional material where the target audience exists is a good idea doesn’t strike me as all that groundbreaking. Billboards & newspaper, radio, & TV ads have been doing that for a long time. Of greater interest to me is the statistical evidence of social media driven traffic. If anyone can figure that bit out, then they will have the proper tools to really harness the power of social networking.

Notice that in the first graph, the highs and lows correspond with each other almost pefectly until myspace.comakes yahoo & msn, at which point the highs and lows become inverse. It’s almost as if overall internet traffic affected all services until mid Oct ’06. ANything happen around that time to really draw people to myspace? News stories, controversy, some band hitting it big? In the second graph, the relationship is inverse from the beginning to about the same time, where the trend reverses itself and become more analogous.

By: Richard Hearne

Richard Hearne — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 14:37:21 +0000

@Stewart – the twinkle in my parents’ eyes came 10 years too early

@John – MySpace is an absolute mess. But that doesn’t seem to have put off the masses. I could never figure out the attraction myself… but it must be paying for somebody given all the money businesses are sinking to advertise/market over there.

By: John

John — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 14:09:15 +0000

yes I notice Bebo has the powerofone campaign profile, which is actively adding friends, and posting messages, it seems to be – as you have noted very effective….

I find myself that myspace is a huge mess of a site – very unorganised

By: Richard Hearne

Richard Hearne — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 09:52:17 +0000

There are some very interesting sites popping up on the likes on MySpace though. If you check out wendys or BugerKing. You can see that the secret to these sites is to promote the brand through entertaining content.

I’m begining to think that you can sell absolutely anything online these days, and promoting the ‘un-promotable’ is just a challenge rather than an impossibility.

Rgds
Richard

By: Stewart

Stewart — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 09:45:09 +0000

I think it’s true about the Bebo replacing email – I heard a young couple arguing outside Dundrum cinema, the girl yelling “I never said that! Did you not, like, read your Bebo?!?”
(Ross O’Carroll Kelly meets Social Networking)

By: Anthony

Anthony — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 09:42:38 +0000

Figuring out how to use the social networking sites is a challenge though. Films are media rich as you say and there’s a street cred element associated with Top Shop and the like.