Marketers realizing the worth of social networking methods
According to a recent survey by JupiterResearch, brand marketers are increasingly using social networking methods for promotional activity and to create buzz. Based on their research, 32% of the respondents said that they had used promotional microsites or plan to use them this year, 22% use advertising on weblogs and 24% use online advertising campaigns. Interestingly, the majority of them (89%) visit the social networking sites to communicate with peers. Winning the trust of readers and peers is key to advertising using social networking media formats, and 30% of those who frequent social networks feel that they would trust their peers opinion while only 10% would trust advertisements.
To precipitate that buzz, marketers must design campaigns that get social networkers talking, Jupiter says For example, an ad for a Spiderman movie advertised on AOL’s social site, AOL Peopleconnection, gave networkers the ability to attach the movie`s video trailer to their own online profile. “When friends saw the trailer on their friend’s page, they viewed it as content rather than an ad,” Jupiter says.