Social networking portals, now, seem to be gaining traction on par with the big portals like Yahoo and Google. Consumers with similar interests seem to congregate, spend time, engage and share their experiences across these portals.
Here's some interesting analysis on the same:
The key questions to me are:
- What will capture their attention if brands want to engage with them? Advertising on these portals? I certainly don't think so. May be brands need to start a series of 'socially-engaged marketing' around them. Else, they will turn a blindspot to the communication.
- What's 'socially-engaged marketing'? Well, it's more than a message according to me. It's a conversation. I went to myspace.com and looked at different groups and searched for some popular groups. The most number of groups where formed around Fan Clubs ( 49400 groups), School & Alumni(48849 groups), Recreation & Sports ( 31946 groups), Entertainment(20028 groups)! People seem to grouping around interests, passion, relationships, belonging etc. The worst were Automotive( 2 groups), Business & Entreprenuers(0 groups)!
I think 'socially engaged marketing' is about building a fan club, creating an alumni of users for your brand - its' an admission number every time a customer buys your brand, it is about having a reunion once a quarter for them(or if required more frequently), it's being an entertainment hub for them( you could entertain them with information, music, movies, video etc.).