Advertisers are continuing to increase their activities in social networking sites in hopes of generating viral brand awareness and affinity. 48% of brand marketers plan to use social marketing tactics in 2007, compared to 38% who did so in 2006. According to a new report, “Social Networking Sites: Defining Advertising Opportunities in a Competitive Landscape,” by JupiterResearch.
Social networking sites are designed for members to create and post content, usually in the form of profile pages. Youth surfers, especially between 18 and 34, are using social utilities websites like MySpace and Facebook to communicate with each other.
“30% of frequent social networkers trust their peers’ opinions when making a major purchase decision, but only 10% trust advertisements,” said Emily Riley, JupiterResearch Analyst and lead author of the report. “Consequently, brand marketers must harness brand advocates and influentials by providing additional motivation for frequent networkers to engage in social marketing.”
The report forecast that advertiser adoption of social tactics will increase competition for attention on social websites among users who are engaged in intense social activity with their peers. In addition to engaging brand advocates to involve social networkers, brand marketers must target interests and activities that attract frequent networkers, and earn trust by mastering social networking flow.
“As brand marketers increase their use of social tactics, they are competing not only among themselves but also with frequent networkers,” said David Schatsky, President of JupiterKagan. “Brand marketers must not act on social tactics as a broad category but, instead, create unique campaigns for different sites.”
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