Social Networks - Session 3: Marketing in Social Services

Part III
Marketing in Social Services

Products
Old:
1. Ads
2. Promotions

New:
1. Profile pages
2. Groups
3. Widgets

Problem: Click through rates are 10x lower on social networking sites

Examples on MySpace and Facebook:
Wendy's Square
- Over 100,000 people established friends with the Wendy's Square

Burger King
- Offered two free downloads of Tv show "24"
- Offered widgets to be placed on friends pages

Cingular Studio
- Store to buy ringtones
- Not very successful

Brand-affiliated groups:
Apple Students on Facebook
- Discussion Board for Apple products
- Unmoderated with no control
EA Sports: Madden 06
- Newsletter signup page
Grass Roots campaigns
- Al Gore group committing to go see his movie
- Registered candidates for local campaigns

Widgets
- Icons that you can add to your page that help identify you
- YouTube video widget
- Slideshow widget
- Can freely embed them anywhere

Sponsored Social Networks
-Walmart "The Hub"
- Already Offline
- Used fake content
- Scripted blog entries
- Screened content
-Joga (Nike + Google)
- Features only allowed Nike sponsored players
-UdaSie (Coke)
- Coke's commercial site in Poland
- Full integration of a "43 things" like social network
- Didn't try to force the Coke brand

Summary
1. New Products (pages, groups)
2. New metrics (being friends?)
3. Lack of control
4. Understand the social dynamics of each environment deeply (Don't be socially awkward)
5. Be original (You can't buy authentic community)
6. Be viral (give people reason to share it)