Corporations go Social Media route
26 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: advertising, corporations, facebook, investment, marketing, Social media, Vitamin water
Not long ago having a dotcom was the absolute key to building brand awareness. Big corporations aimed to have one and once they got it, it was the URL they pointed everyone to in all of their marketing and brand promotions. But with the evolution of Web 2.0 and the rise of the social web, corporations have realised the numerous advertising and marketing opportunities that are presented by social media platforms. Access to clients and potential customers has been made easier by social media platforms such as Loopd, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. These interactive social media sites enable interaction between the different corporation marketers and potential and existing customers.
Instead of directing traffic to the official company website it has become common for most businesses to promote their social media pages. Business cards containing Twitter usernames as opposed to domain names have become the norm for big companies such as HP and Intel. Because of the great client and customer response presented by the social media, companies are opting to create ad campaigns that actually direct people to interact with their social media accounts rather than visit their branded website. Vitamin Water is one of the big companies which is using this form of product promotion. Vitamin Water is using this advertising mode through a multi-channel campaign featuring NBA superstars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. Although the ad campaign is mainly designed for ESPN, a sport channel, the ad requires viewers to visit facebook.com/vitaminwater which is their social media page.
Why the move to social media?
With more than 500 million active members, social media platforms are clearly the biggest platform for companies like Vitamin Water to use for their product outreach. Social media users are becoming marketers as friends make each other aware of certain brands via the networking platforms. The ability to engage in debate with fellow users enables corporations to pinch ideas from their customers on how to make their product better. Wall posts on company’s Facebook profiles enables marketers to know what their customers think about their product without them having to spend a lot of money on the process. Because joining the social media platforms is free, companies are realising the cost benefits of marketing their product for free. Vitamin Water uses different social media to promote their product. They direct people to their Facebook profile and whilst on their profile they also link customers to their YouTube page where they show their video ad campaigns. So instead of spending millions of dollars on advertising on ESPN, the company airs minimal ads on Tv.
Growth of social media
Although the business models for making amicable profit from social media sites is still debatable, some major investors recognise the potential in the growth of these sites in the media and advertising industry. Recently Facebook received a $200 million investment from a Russian Internet investment firm that values the social networking site at $10 billion. The firms also plans to buy at least $100 million of Facebook common stock from existing stockholders to provide liquidity for current and former employees with vested shares of Facebook.
The sudden interest in marketing products on social media sites has been a revelation to marketers who deem the advertising world as saturated. However, not all companies use the social media for advertising; some firms use the sites to create product interest. For example Johnson & Johnson uses a blog to show another side of the company, with frequent video posts and interviews. Nike started a social community on Loopd to connect athletes interested in surfing, BMX bike racing and similar activities with the brand.
What started as a means of communicating and producing armature media has evolved into a platform for exploitation by different corporations and organisations. The concept of social media and networking is slowing changing because of the grave interest in the platform’s ability to communicate to masses faster and to transgress cultural and political boundaries.
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