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Friendvertising
Advertising and Brand Building With Social Networks
by
Tracy L. Tuten Ph.D.
Social media encompass communication possible throughout all of the forms of
social communities online. Social-media communities include forums, virtual
worlds, social news organizations, social opinion-sharing sites, and social
networks. Social networks are built around site platforms that enable members to
develop identity profiles, interact with other members, and participate in
various site activities. Social networks are 2D environments with identity
representation limited to one's profile rather than by visually detailed avatars
common to virtual worlds. Although interactions with others can seemingly
approximate synchronous real-time communication, the messaging structure is
static rather than dynamic. Networks can be thought of as utility-based tools.
They are an elegant but fun way to organize content, socialize, and promote
one's self-identity.
Despite this, social networks have grown in popularity from their ability to
provide a platform for information sharing, communication, and relationship
development and maintenance. In a world where individuals may have reduced
physical contact and heightened time spent interacting with electronic devices,
social networks have evolved to provide an online platform for personal,
intimate, informal neighborhood and office chatter. They offer a sense of
"contact comfort" in a society where many of us spend less time with actual
people than we do with machines. Contact comfort helps to meet individual needs
for affiliation and socialization. Social networks meet our need for contact
comfort while also providing entertainment and information sharing.
Social networks are above all else communication hubs. While they all offer
the core product of networking capabilities, networks do find ways to
differentiate themselves. Myspace and Facebook support relationship building and
maintenance. YouTube offers a venue for sharing and promoting videos and related
opinions. Flickr enables photo sharing and reviewing. LinkedIn provides a form
of self-promotion and career networking. There are niche sites as well focused
on any number of hobbies and personal interests. Catster, for example, offers
tips and information on caring for one's feline companion with the added benefit
of being able to talk with others who define themselves in part by the pets they
love. Several social networks will be described in this chapter.
Social networks, like other online communities, are participatory,
conversational, and fluid. Members produce, publish, control, critique, rank,
and interact with online content. On Facebook, for instance, the second most
popular social network, members can build a profile that includes information
about their education, habits, favorite movies and books, and other personality
indicators. They can send and receive messages to members, "friend" people, and
join groups and networks. Profiles can be complemented with pictures, news feeds
on member activities (e.g., Tracy just went shopping), and a variety of widgets.
Widgets are small applications made up of code embedded on a Web site. Facebook
widgets enable members to virtually hug, wink, smile, and engage in a host of
other behaviors. Most sites offer similar features, with messaging, profiling,
and friending being the core functions of any network site. The interaction with
others enhances the need to return to the site and continue the process of
generating new content. The result is an online community of friends who may
spend hours in the network each day.
Mashable, a social-networking news Web site, claims more than 350
social-networking sites exist. It wasn't terribly long ago that social
networking was thought of primarily as a teenage pastime with general Internet
population statistics suggesting only about 15% of Internet users visited
social-networking sites.' Since those early days of online communities, social
networking has taken off as a cultural phenomenon among youth with 70% of teens
reporting use of online networking sites. These days adults, too, are
social-networking online. Social-networking sites are among the fastest growing
and most commonly visited sites online. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the top
ten most-visited social networking sites reach 45% of active Internet users.
Despite the diversity of sites targeting Internet users based on a host of
hobbies, interests, and demographic characteristics, two sites, MySpace and
Facebook, reach more than any of the others. It is reported by comScore that
MySpace reached more than 40% and Facebook near 20% of Internet users in the
United States. The raw figures amount to hundreds of millions of unique visitors
at these sites.
There is no doubt that much of this growth can be attributed to the
attractive features social networks offer members. At the same time, the flat
learning curve for new adopters surely plays a role. Most networking sites have
advanced options for members, but the basics of joining, completing a profile,
and sending and receiving messages are simple enough to be mastered in moments.
The ease of use has resulted in a steep rate of adoption for social-networking
sites.
Given the audience size and the length of exposure time consumers spend in
the network, it is no wonder that advertisers have embraced social networks for
social-media marketing more than any other community environment. eMarketer
estimates that marketers spent $920 million on social network advertising in
2007, including online display advertising, in-network community sites, and
brand profile pages. What's more, the research firm predicts spending on
social-network advertising to reach nearly $3 billion in less than five years.
This figure may sound more impressive than it actually is given that
social-network advertising is still under 5% of the total expenditures on online
advertising. Additionally, the vast majority of spending is directed at the two
juggernauts of social networks, MySpace and Facebook. More than 70% of ad
expenditures directed to social networks in the United States is placed in these
two networks. Though social networks are strong in international markets,
social-network advertising is for now a phenomenon focused on consumers in the
United States; U.S. spending accounts for 75% of all advertising in this venue.
> Next: Social-Networking Sites and Categories
The above is an excerpt from the book Advertising 2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 World
by Tracy L. Tuten
Published by Praeger; September 2008;$24.95US; 978-0-313-35296-6
Copyright © 2008 Tracy L. Tuten
Author Bio
Tracy L. Tuten Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Marketing at Longwood University.
She has authored more than one hundred journal articles, book chapters, and
conference presentations; her research interests include Web-based survey
methods, branding and identify, and online advertising. She serves on the
editorial review board for the journals Psychology & Marketing and Gender in
Management and serves on the academic advisory board for the Commercial Closet.
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