Making your brand 'Facebook friendly'

A new study from Illuminas highlights the uniqueness of social networking and how brands need to fit into the community.

The remarkable success of social networking has attracted a great deal of attention in the marketing industry but why has it been so uniquely successful? A recent study conducted by Illuminas traces its popularity to its ability to replicate group behaviour.

The qualitative study amongst regular users of networking sites aged 15 - 55 uncovered a variety of ways in which social networking amplifies and extends our need and capacity, most notably for group behaviour.

Web 2.0 translates into an on online medium a range of social interactions that until now have been confined to small group situations.

In the world of Web 2.0 consumers have little or no respect for copyright, brand values and other publishing limitations.

They want to take a brand and manipulate it, to use it as they see fit.

Illuminas has developed a best practice guide for brands to ensure they can fit into this community.

As Jonathan Fletcher, Group Creative Director of Illuminas pointed out: ''Failing to observe best practice can be worse than not bothering at all as it can make your brand seem as if it takes itself too seriously or feels that it is bigger than the community".

The study identified a number of distinct user types, including: Broadcasters - who are concerned mainly to tell their story to others in a one-way, network-wide communication; Mature focused - for whom social networking is being used on the Web 1.0 model, that is as a tool for a single, specific purpose such as dating; 'Happy Eventers' - whose usage is driven primarily by the need to share photos of a specific event like a wedding or of children - a sort of modern spin on the family circular letter.

The segment that appears to be central to the success of social networking is the 'Atomised'.

These urban, 20-somethings make full use of the group behaviour functions on networking sites to resist the fragmentation of circles of friends from their school and university days as they make the transition to work.

The fact that social networking sites have been so successful in serving and extending a basic human need (for group interaction) means that these sites, or their successors, are likely to be here to stay.

The unique nature of the sites - building on existing social networks and encouraging a high level of self-expression - presents marketers and researchers with a unique challenge if they are to exploit the commercial value of the medium.

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