The only care that one has to take is to segment the communication with relevance to the type of social platform. For e.g. a communication for a blog will have to be different than a communication on a forum than a communication on a networking site than a communication on an answers site …
which is were advertisers mostly fail। They need not create a traditional ad for social sites, even if they have to the flavour, format and content should be different for different types of social platforms.
2. You cannot get enough CTRs on Social Sites:
> See the indirect results: Communication on social sites will give you volumnous referral traffic from different sites and sources.It has an elastic effect, the responses stretch over a long period, and your communication reaches indirectly to people who you could not have targeted otherwise.
At Bahrti Airtel, I started perhaps one of Asia’s first Online Reputation Management and Social Media Marketing, and while I cannot quote numbers, the experience was quite motivating.
Also we need to prune our objectives: the objectives cannot be just CTRs, if that’s the game you want to play then hire a lead generating agency, do mass mailings thorugh list agencies and don’t bother about where you get clicks from।
3. Social Sites are not good enough for branding.
> No one single vehicle or platform is enough for branding today (even TV)so let’s not put this arguement forward against Social Media Marketing.
Internet has the capability for multimedia depiction of communication, and through innovative ways a brand can be built on internet and on a social site।The only thing against this is volumes. However With mobile internet and wimax, internet usage could beat beat TV usage in less than 5 years.
4. Advertising is the only way you can earn money on Social Sites
> May not be an entirely correct statement.
Tomorrow you will have premium networking sites…with membership fee and advantages. In UK there are sites which offer you online security services in case as a female you want to on a blind date with a person you met on that social networking site. So what happens here is that if you went for a blind date and did not come back and deactivate an alarm online within a stipulated time…the site will immediately send alarms to your relatives and friends alongwith address and profile of person whom the female went to blind date with.
These are paid services.
What happens if we have a ‘c’ class’ social network…do you think it will be free?
What about collaborative sites: sites which aggregate music lovers from across the world and let them together create music. The site has potential to charge you for marketing your music, can charge you for providing base audio to supplement your vocals, can sell accessories, memntos etc.For eg. check out http://www.estockmusic.com/.
So social sites will earn from advertisements as also from subscriptions and ecommerce sales।
5. People who come to social sites are not serious snough hence advertising will not work
> There is a reason why people come on social networking sites: And that reason is networking and collaborating।
How can as marketers we extend or enhance “networking” and “collaboration” experience through our communication? This is what we should think instead of CTRs।
If you start thinking about CTRs, then you will be driven by how to increase impressions and eventually become desparate and abandon.
But if you think about contextualisation, collaboration and experience, then CTRs and eye balls will automatically happen.
