Marketing brands in social networks have become an important part of the marketing strategy. This trend is expected to continue growing in 2010.
This information is already common knowledge. But I think that the more interesting question is: "what is the best way to market in social networks?"
Emarketer.com report “Social Network Ad Spending: 2010 Outlook, claims that “In 2010 and beyond, a substantial portion of marketers’ expenses will go toward creating and maintaining a fan page, managing promotions or public relations outreach within a social network, and measuring the impact of a social network presence on brand health and sales”.
A September 2009 MarketingProfs survey of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers tried to answer this question. It shows the most popular and most affective marketing tactics in social networks.
The least affective
Buying ads on social networks, even targeted ads, was the least effective type of social media marketing. Communities have had this problem for a long time: high rates of page views per user, leads to low rates of advertising clicks.
This does not mean advertising in social networks needs to stop: it can be a good supporting tactic that drives traffic to the brand social activities.
The most common
The most common marketing tactic used on Facebook today is attempting to drive traffic to corporate fan pages, using status updates. This is a very popular strategy – but not the most affective one.
The most affective
According to MarketingProfs survey, the most effective tactic for consumer-oriented companies was creating a facebook application. This tactic was done by less than one-quarter of total respondents.
Both B2B and B2C companies also reported surveys of their fans as effective; fan surveys were the third-most-common tactic attempted.
We have already started seeing more interesting marketing applications for brands. I'm sure we'll be seeing many more of those this year.
