Product category:
Marketing strategy and consultancy
News Release from: Blast Radius | Subject: Social networking campaigns
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 16 August 2007
Blast Radius gets thumbs-up from
Forrester
Social networking campaigns don't follow traditional marketing rules, says Forrester, citing Blast Radius as a 'top agency' that puts customer relationship maps at the core of its process.
A key statement in Forrester's recently published report 'Marketing on Social Networking Sites' says: Successful social networking site (SNS) campaigns don't follow traditional marketing rules It is the second report in Forrester's Social Networking Series for interactive marketing professionals and is authored by Vice President and Principal Analyst Charlene Li with Josh Bernoff, Katheryn A Feffer and Cynthia Pflaum
This article was originally published on Marketingservicestalk on 20 Aug 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Website encourages consumer/supplier dialogue
The UK arm of a new consumer website has launched that is designed to provide customers with a real-time barometer of attitudes towards companies and brands.
Jaguar Cars Tops UK Online Experience Survey
Jaguar's online presence has been rated as the best for the consumer goods manufacturing sector, according to strategic interactive agency Blast Radius' Best UK Online Experience survey 2007.
The report emphasises that "social networking site users represent a huge, attractive audience" and notes "most marketers salivate at the tremendous reach of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, which were visited by 57 million and 14 million users, respectively, in April in the US alone".
Forrester's own survey of SNS users reveal that they are: young with 68 per cent of 18- to 21-year-old SNS users visiting SNSs every day, predominantly MySpace; Facebook is especially popular with 18- to 21-year-olds and its growth has mushroomed since it opened its platform to non-students in September 2006.
Users also want to engage with their favourite brands: more than one-third of Gen Y social networking users - the population with the greatest percent of SNS users - say that they would be interested in seeing a marketer's profile.
They are also viral leaders - daily users and users who are interested in marketer profiles are more likely to consider themselves "natural leaders" and in addition, more than one-third of adult users and more than half of youth users who are interested in marketer profiles publish their own blogs.
According to the Forrester report, "by now, it's clear that successful SNS campaigns don't follow traditional marketing rules; SNSs can't be treated as channels because SNS members aren't passive web pages".
But most marketers still use traditional marketing tactics like run-of-site advertising and static microsites to push messages into these networks.
Instead, to realise the full value of marketing on SNSs, marketers should be prepared to engage in a personal relationship with users by providing something of value.
Promotions are good in this context, but even better are information or brand elements that users can pass on to their friends.
As such says Forrester, "marketers should mimic how bands promote themselves on sites like MySpace - they engage their fans by posting frequently, providing backstage gossip, and answering their questions".
Against this background, Li concludes that marketers should 'ditch the marketing tactics' as marketing using SNS is "about building trusted relationships".
In doing so, Li recommends that in addition to this best practice approach marketers should do the following.
* Work with your agency, but only if it has SNS expertise: while a handful of 'top agencies' including Blast Radius have detailed customer relationship maps at their core of their process, agencies vary widely in their ability to engage with users at an individual level.
Interview your existing agency to check its level of understanding of how to use social networking sites - and avoid the firm if it doesn't appreciate the special nature of this community.
* Develop trust and traffic with links from your website: marketers shouldn't be shy about their SNS presence and, when appropriate, should develop links from their traditional web presence to those profiles.
For example, Victoria's Secret has a link on its PINK website to its Facebook profile.
This also helps develop trust that the site is "official" and isn't one of the thousand imposters that sprout up so often on MySpace".
* Leverage the new Facebook platform: the openness of Facebook's platform means that marketers have the potential to extend existing communities and functionality into Facebook.
Marketing needs to turn itself on its head.
"Forrester has recognised much of the thinking that currently underpins Blast Radius' strategy; during the past 10 years, the evolution of the internet has dramatically changed how organisations interact with customers," said Gurval Caer, Blast Radius president and CEO.
"Companies are recognising that traditional marketing approaches like advertising are less effective today and so marketers are struggling to deliver value.
"People no longer want 'interruptive' brand communications - they want interactions with their peers and true value from companies through Facebook applications or communities for sharing ideas and experiences.
"We believe that marketing needs to turn itself on its head; the goal should not be messaging customers, but rather should be building relationships from the first moment of a delightful experience that will make people's lives easier, better and richer.
"Thinking and interacting in this way will help marketing executives deliver more meaningful and relevant experiences to customers and stronger business results to CEOs.
"The issue as Forrester has highlighted is that only a few agencies have the capability to allow marketers to take full advantage of this change".
*Marketing on Social Networking Sites by Charlene Li for Interactive Marketing Professionals, Forrester Research Inc, July 5, 2007.
Founded in 1997, Blast Radius is a proudly independent strategic interactive agency that builds long-term relationships with major consumer-facing brands to deliver innovative and profitable customer experiences that realise the promise of the connected world.
It does this by combining business savvy, experience design, and industry-leading technologies, including its on-demand Customer Experience Platform.
Based in Vancouver and with offices in San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Amsterdam and London, Blast Radius works with companies such as AOL, BMW, Electronic Arts, Heineken, Newell Rubbermaid, Nike, Nintendo, Philips and Whirlpool.
• Blast Radius: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Marketingservicestalk email newsletter
• Marketingservicestalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
