Marketing on Social Networks

Social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace have become an inseparable part of our lives. Empirical studies have shown that click through rate for ads on these sites are very low. This is disappointing both for social network companies which expect to monetize from the network as well as for the companies which display ads. The reason is simple; people are on social networks because they are trying to find solution to their offline problem of networking in real world. For looking at ads they would probably be looking out to general content sites that offer specific entertainment content.

The solution is (as Prof. Piskorski of Harvard) puts it a shift from social media to social strategy. Instead of looking social networks as another media, a comprehensive strategy needs to be put in that exploits the network effects of the social sites. The marketing efforts have to be around ‘Viral Marketing’. Since social networks offers friends, and friends of friends and friends of friends of friends, the best way is to use word of mouth publicity. Here are few suggestions-

a. Offer something for free to a randomly selected set of people commenting on your Facebook (or any other social network) page.

b. Form a community and invite people to be part of that. Obviously, there has to be some incentive for people to be in. The strategy can be customized depending on product brand by forming a restricted community or open-for-all community. 

c. Float a creative application or a creative picture (with small brand logo on that) that people post onto their pages. For example, a car company coming with a new model could float a small car game application or create pictures.

d. Incentivize people to update their purchases on networks. For example, a sunglasses company could offer a $10 rebate to users offering to upload their purchase and shop from which it was bought status on Facebook.

e. Engage people who are active on Facebook and other social networks into promoting your brand.