Opportunities And Challenges For Brands On Social Networking Sites

Christina Goodman, head of global marketing and business development at Dynamic Logic, discusses how recent research from the company suggests that social networking sites present a unique platform where brands can connect with consumers.

Social networking sites have enjoyed an undisputed popular growth phenomenon over the past few years. MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn currently offer advertisers access to over 160 million active users.

There seems to be a certain degree of optimism about ads on social networking sites, but with special considerations, such as where privacy is threatened. Privacy is a huge issue, and there was a massive user outcry recently when Facebook proposed its Beacon advertising platform which automatically tells a user’s Facebook friends what they bought when shopping online. Facebook has since decided to make Beacon an opt-in system, so it can only track data if given explicit permission to do so.

Brands have a great opportunity to engage in a dialogue with social networkers, providing that the brand and message are relevant and do not interrupt the conversation and community spirit of the sites. We found that social-networkers feel that even though they don’t necessarily enjoy seeing the ads, they “didn’t bother” them. The trend, across the world, seems that social-networkers are willing to accept some advertising on the sites in exchange for free access.

The ads that social-networkers like are “relevant, entertaining and colorful”, “keeping [them] in the know”, and “informative”. “They are creative and build upon the community atmosphere,” said one person. On the flip side, as with all media, the ads that are a turn-off are deemed to be intrusive and annoying, with the number of ads being off-putting to some. People don’t want to be interrupted, particularly in an environment like social networking sites where they go to connect with and talk to friends.

So, if advertisers want their brands to engage in a positive way with social-networkers, they have to understand how to deliver their message at the optimum time without intruding or attempting to interrupt the flow of dialogue going on between the user and their friends.

The hugely unique opportunities of using social network websites to deliver engaging brand advertising are there, it is simply a matter of using them in the right way without turning off the consumer.