Comments for Do You Want to Discuss Products in Social Media?

Do You Want to Discuss Products in Social Media?

2009-05-11T16:36:48Z

With a name like SocialMedia.com, it had better be good - right? The company called SocialMedia is launching a number of new advertising products today and they beg a question that could be fundamental to the financial viability of this new online world - do people want to talk about products and be active participants in advertising campaigns? We're not sure how we feel about this idea and we're curious about your perspective.

SocialMedia.com has raised millions of dollars in financing and says it's seen excellent results in previous campaigns on Facebook and other social networks. Now it's going to bring its strategy to Twitter, dedicated microsites and elsewhere around the web. The strategy is essentially to track, highlight and prompt casual conversations online about an advertiser's product. Do you want to be part of those kinds of conversations?

]]> Social Media's Nick Gonzalez says the company's previous campaigns have been found to "increase purchasing intent 6% over standard digital campaigns and in target audiences that went up to 13% over standard digital campaigns." Those campaigns asked users of things like Facebook applications what they thought about a product, then shared the answers out with respondents' friend networks on Facebook.

Now the company is going to roll out a service that tracks Twitter mentions of a company, product or keyword. The discovered search results will be filterable, can be limited to a particular group of users, and can then be displayed in a widget or microsite. For an additional fee SocialMedia will purchase ads in popular Twitter clients that prompt users to Tweet about an advertiser. Twitter users don't get paid for doing so, they just get the opportunity to offer public feedback, perhaps with a common hashtag so all the related tweets can be viewed publicly with ease. We can imagine people going for that. RSS readers can click here to participate in a poll on this topic and view the results.

Other new products being rolled out today include branded embeddable polls and activity stream publishing microsites that will function a little like Twitter but will stand alone on an advertiser's site.

This doesn't sound terribly complicated and in fact sounds like it could work quite well. But will you welcome these kinds of conversations into your social media experience? The "your friend is a fan of this product" ads on Facebook are a touch creepy already. Are you ready to see this paradigm proliferate through the work of companies like this?

"I came here to talk about my thoughts, feelings and experiences with friends and a global network of diverse people - and you want me to write about your product?"

Comment from Guias Local on 2009-05-11

2009-05-11T17:19:20Z

Great info thanks.

Comment from Vijay Rayapati on 2009-05-11

2009-05-11T20:16:22Z

Social Media is just a new medium for creating an engagement between consumers/prospects and products/services of brand.I am sure this medium is better than other traditional medium for engaging with consumers.

Comment from Alex Williams on 2009-05-11

2009-05-11T22:14:17Z

These ads are better than banners and text ads. But the question is about authenticity. A friend tells me that he really likes the veggie bagels at a local coffee shop. Okay, I trust my friend. I'll try it.

A happy shopper appears in an ad and tells me that he really likes the bagels he buys at the grocery store. I'm not so sure. I don't know the person. But if 50 people said the grocery store bagels are pretty good then I would be more convinced.

I guess in this new form of social advertising it comes down to number of people making the endorsement.

Comment from @mediathink on 2009-05-11

2009-05-11T23:52:07Z

Data suggests people want to share information about experience with products they feel passionate about. Experience is social capital. There is a lot of risk in a purchase decision. From the perspective of the enterprise, Social media is a huge research and CRM opportunity--not an advertising platform. As Rollo May said-the opposite of love isn't hate-- it's indifference. If people are talking about your product it means something-- it has value that can be leveraged. Marketers know this but marketing is not advertising. Paid discussions and sponsored dialog is a miss-appropriation of resources.

Advertising is fine--particularly if it isn't disruptive. That's hard to do these days. Awareness building is growing more difficult by the day. We'll see lots more of these futile efforts until marketers understand the role of influence and experience.

If all you got is a hammer--everything looks like a nail.

Comment from Mark Schaefer on 2009-05-11

2009-05-12T02:36:43Z

Here's an alert about human nature -- we are more likely to be vocal when we're upset about something. Yes, people will talk about products and services ... if they hate them.

Many people are tethered to some form of media nearly every moment of the day. It's unlikely people will devote incremental time to product discussions unless there is an axe to grind or financial benefit.

Comment from Samuel on 2009-05-11

2009-05-12T06:03:53Z

To me this is just a one more channel of advertising, then at the end of the day, advertising it is, however you wanna call it.

The thing I personally don't like about this idea is the risk to promote products or services which are in fact "bad" trough a communication channel which works (only) based on credibility and authenticity.

What we know is, that if users who expect authenticity find out that the source is not authentic and/or the service/product this source promote is "no good" then you destroy the credibility of the service you are using (let's say twitter) the one of the client (service/product) and of the multiplicator you are relying on (buddy who is promoting on twitter).

So overall, a very, very risky business.

Comment from Usman on 2009-05-12

2009-05-12T18:42:11Z

The greatest benefit of Facebook is that it has many groups on the site that you can join. So if you are interested in Chicago Cubs you can research Chicago Cubs in the groups section and you will be able to find friends on there that like the Cubs. This is just one example, I know that you can join groups of your favorite football team, television show, or whatever you want for the most part! If you can't find a group for your interest, you can simply create one!

UQ
http://EmailCharger.com

Comment from Ross Craven on 2009-05-13

2009-05-13T08:42:02Z

I totally agree with this, another new kind of advertising
sounds like a reasonable idea which to me it also sounds like if this new advertisment, would become even better than the banner ADS and the text ADS.

Comment from Benjamin Wright on 2009-05-13

2009-05-13T15:41:12Z

Multnomah's sister county to the south, Jackson, is a pioneer in the exploitation of technology. Jackson may be the first (sizable) government agency in the world to archive ALL of its employee e-mail (and other e-messages like IM) indefinitely. Although such a policy is highly unusual, it reflects the county's progressive realization that e-mail records are an asset of both the county's government and its citizens.

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2009-05-24

2009-05-24T17:57:06Z

Do You Want to Discuss Products in Your Social Media Experience? http://bit.ly/6K7fn POLL more ads coming 2 Twitter, how do u feel about it? [from http://twitter.com/marshallk/statuses/1764902968]

Comment from sean percival on 2009-05-24

2009-05-24T18:24:47Z

i saw the stats on this site (build by a friend of a friend). they've had days with over 2 million UV

Comment from Elliott on 2009-07-08

2009-07-09T06:07:47Z

I agree with you to a certain extent.
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Comment from cinsellik on 2009-07-18

2009-07-18T12:53:39Z

I am grateful to you for this great content.

Comment from Peter on 2009-07-18

2009-07-18T16:57:56Z

Companies have some problems with pull marketing, that's why is not working with social media sometimes ...

Comment from AzizBey on 2009-07-20

2009-07-20T19:07:24Z

totally agree with this, another new kind of advertising
sounds like a reasonable idea which to me it also sounds like if this new advertisment, would become even better than the banner ADS and the text ADS.

Comment from hiphop on 2009-07-20

2009-07-20T19:09:36Z

Comment from Aluminum Castings on 2009-07-26

2009-07-27T01:39:01Z

If all you got is a hammer--everything looks like a nail.

what a great post.

Comment from söve on 2009-07-30

2009-07-30T14:01:46Z

I am grateful to you for this great content.
söve