Final Post and Blog Essay

Social Software and Its Role in Product Promotion
Gregg Whitehead

Social software can hold a major role in the common world of advertising and marketing. Promotion of products and services can be an expensive endeavor. The cost of a single television commercial , a thirty second radio spot, a print ad, or any other traditional form of marketing can be astronomical, and a serious financial burden for new companies, and even the seasoned product veteran. New forms of off-the-wall marketing can be a financially feasible way for anyone to market.

Whether it’s a band with a new single, a skateboard company with a hot product, or a girl selling her own line of clothing, social software is a great way to market. On my blog, I have covered these topics and requested reader feedback on a few of them. One of my readers commented, “I'd definitely add products as friends. Myspace is too cluttered with ads. I don’t click any because many of them are the spam kind (FREE IPOD!!!), making you fill out your personal info just so they can email you tons and tons of spam.”

By using social networking software, marketers can advertise to users. By sending friend requests to myspace users who have interests matching the product, users can chose to add the particular account as a friend. Those who accept the requests are interacting with the product account as a friend. The user can look at the product’s profile, see what new products, services, or even songs are available, and thus, interact with the brand. This form of marketing is friendlier to the users, as well. As my reader commented, she would add products as friends, but can not stand the traditional banner ads displayed on many sites. As apposed to being annoying to the user and attacking them with a barrage of banner ads, this form of advertising allows the user to decide, making them more likely to consider the product. Relevant issues in today’s online community, such as the over abundance of popup advertisements are avoided with this form of marketing.

The promotion of goods through this form of marketing can be wonderful for the up and coming entrepreneur. I made a post on my blog several weeks ago about a girl who goes by the name Forbidden on myspace. Forbidden sells her own line of destroyed denim jeans, a style that is quite popular today, and can be found in many stores, such as American Eagle, and Abercrombie and Fitch. Forbidden markets her line on myspace and has 819,475 friends. When she posts a new message on social networking site myspace, every one of those nearly 820,000 friends sees it. That is nearly 820,000 impressions from one post, and the cost to her: zero.

One of my other important topics was myspace music. I have received many friend requests from bands, and accepted many of them. This is a great way for bands to reach listeners, and attract a following. Social networking site users can listen to the band’s newest song, and in some cases, even purchase albums. As I wrote in a post on February 14, 2006, “By adding bands to the friend list, the artists receive free promotion. Opinion leaders in the music world (friends of Myspace users that know the best music), help facilitate this promotion when their friends view their profiles.” It can be easy to target opinion leaders by simply looking at users interests. Bands can link other bands as friends, friends of those bands can add the other bands, and so a social network is built; a community of friends that enjoy the same music.

New companies can have great success by marketing on social networks. An example from my blog is the post on Morristown Nightlife. Morristown nightlife is a new website that targets a specific demographic; the college aged male or female living in the Morristown, New Jersey area. This site has information about the bar, club, and restaurant scene in the area. The site launched early in March, but since the beginning of February, their myspace account with the name “Happy Hour is No Longer Just an Hour,” has attracted more than 3,000 friends. That is a group of over 3,000 people who are interested in their new site, and who were looking forward to its launch.

Blogs are another great form of social software. Many companies use blogs to communicate with customers. Establishment of a blog on a company site is a great way to encourage customers to engage in conversation with other customers and company employees about available products and services. This form of communication can help companies tailor products to the needs of its customers. Blogging is also a great way to test product ideas prior to release. Customer interaction is an extremely beneficial way for companies to reach its product users.

One particular class discussion comes to mind with respect to social software and blogging. Ethics are becoming an increasingly important part of internet marketing. As discussed in class, it is important for company employees to identify themselves when engaging in discussion with customers. It is also important for customers on the receiving end of free samples of new products make their status known to the social networking community. It would be unethical for a company to manage a blog where company employees posted comments praising products without identifying themselves. This presents a question for the users of social networking software. How credible are the sources on networking sites? People who post comments on myspace accounts and blogs must clearly identify themselves. As more instances of unethical behavior surface in social networking communities, credibility of the ethical users is lost, and marketing through these means loses its viability.

Social Software against Social Software!

I was sent a link (by an important person, Kim Gregson, Associate Professor, Ithaca College) to an article entitled Anti-Social Networking Gets Hip It seems that those angered by social networking sites are creating sites against them, where people can share their gripes with other haters.

I find one thing interesting about these new sites...People are making sites where others can socially engage in conversation about sites where people socially engage in conversation. Sounds to me like the haters are just as bad as the users! The site is called Snubster, a site that looks like a message board, where users can register with email addresses and communicate with others.


WHAT DO YOU THINK???
Are snubster and other sites simply a bunch of haters of the beauty that is social networking software?

Can snubster and others be used to market products to users?

Would you join a site that is hypocritical?

My TEST of social software and its MARKETING abilities!

SO... I have been operating this blog for a few weeks! What most do not know, is that I have been testing the marketing capabilities of social software since day one!

After my first real post, I began sending messages to all of my friends on both myspace and facebook. These messages said whay my blog was, and asked people to read and comment. As anyone can clearly see, I have many comments on my early posts. This is from my method of marketing.

After a few posts, I ended my marketing strategy. I ceased the sending of messages telling people about my blog. Obviously, it is clear what happened. People stopped looking and commenting.

After completing this project, my conclusion is well founded. SOCIAL SOFTWARE IS A GREAT WAY TO MARKET!

Sending messages to many people, I managed to draw a readership, but did not manage to hold it! Had I continued to market my blog, my number of comments would have dramatically increased, possibly to the point where people would check it without prompt from my messages.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Had I continued to solicit comments, would people have continued to read?
Is this a good way to determine if something, such as social networking software, is good for marketing?

The NEW Wisdom of the WEB!

The most recent cover of news week read, "Putting the 'WE' in WEB!" The article associated with this exciting headline is in respect to SOCIAL SOFTWARE! It discusses the change in online trends, and tells the tale of the early days of social software, such as, my personal favorite, Myspace, and flickr!
By Steven Levy and Brad Stone
Newsweek
April 3, 2006 issue - A little over two years ago, even the most sensitive entrepreneurial radar could not pick out two pairs of people on opposite ends of the West Coast starting companies that would make plenty out of nothing. In Santa Monica, Calif., dot-com survivors Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson were hatching the idea of taking on biggies like AOL and Yahoo with a Web site consisting only of stuff that people would bring to it. And up in Vancouver, B.C., married collaborators Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake were just figuring out that the online game they were developing might work better as a way for people to share their digital photos with each other.

Now both fledgling companies are leading a charge of innovators making hay out of the Internet's ability to empower citizens and enrich those who help with the empowerment. The southern California guys head MySpace, the prime hangout for 65 million (mostly young) people, and thousands of rock bands, movie stars and marketers begging for their attention. Canadian-born Flickr, by building a 2.5 million-member community solely around a passion for sharing photos, has become a poster child on how a well-executed Net effort can make big changes in people's habits. Welcome to the new tech boom.

Oh, and unlike the old boom, where entrepreneurs couldn't get to the IPO broker's office quick enough, these crafty duos have already taken the money and stayed. Yahoo has snapped up Flickr to bolster the portfolio of services it offers to its half-billion users. And the new owner of MySpace is that wild and crazy (like, um, a fox) digital punkster, Rupert Murdoch—hedging his bets on what might be the next Net-powered media upheaval.

(I borrowed this from newsweek! Clearly, I am not a writer, and this could not possibly have been written by me!)
There is more to this article, which can be found at www.newsweek.com!

What does all this mean?!

I am excited! I am hoping that soon enough, Myspace may become a publicly traded company, at which time I will become very rich!!! SEE...Social software is marketing itself! If the stock sells (and IT will!), profit can be wonderful!

When this company becomes publicly traded, the simple act of people keeping in touch with other people, in the most amazing, yet most simple form, will make money for many! Picking the companies early is important (thanks dad)!

SOCIAL MARKETING..........for teachers?!

It is true, social software is designed to keep the procrastinators procrastinating, and those laden with boredom excited about the next moment they will have to sit before their glowing box, and enjoy the lives of others!

Beside the social and marketing aspects that I have discussed, there is another important form of marketing taking place on places such as Myspace, ratemyteachers.com, ratemyprofessors.com, ratetheteacher.com, and many more. That’s right, if you haven’t guessed it already; social software is taking EDUCATION and marketing to a new level!

Considering myself a relatively honest person, I admit, I have rated my teachers on MYSPACE! [See the image below]


For college students, this is a wonderful form of marketing! Not only can students make an educated decision about which professors they definitely want to have in college, but myspace can generate revenue by showing banner ads (which I have cut out of the above placed image)!

As for the other sites…I have looked at them, and quite frankly, I think they are WONDERFUL! I was so excited, and bored, that I went on and rated almost every single teacher that I have ever had (since freshmen year in high school, that is!).

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
IS this a good way to sell students on particular teachers?
IS this a good way to gain impressions for advertising messages displayed on social networking sites?

Blogging for Product Promotion!

IF you can consider Bloggs to be social software, which I DO, you will agree, for any company incorporating an Integrated Marketing Communications plan into their marketing strategy, blogging is a great way to stir up some talk about a product!

I feel that bloggs are a useful form of social software! By setting up a blog for a product, companies can encourage users to engage in discussion about their products, providing beneficial feedback, and, of course, completing the communications model.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Is blogging a form of social software?
Do you operate a personal or business blog to keep intouch with others?
IF a company had a blog related to a specific product that you use, would you post comments, or engage in discussion with other product users?

Social Software and Sales

Due to a recent death in the family, I have been having difficulty coming up with things to post. MY mind has been wandering and it has been making it difficult for me to think. For this reason I turned to the bloggs!

I ran a search on bloggspot for social software and marketing, and I found an interesting article that I wish to share with you. HOwever, there will be no questions for you to answer. Just give me an opinion!

Very interesting read. It's great that Hamid disclosed so much information. I worked at a firm in the past where a client came up with an idea for a free online promotion. (David probably remembers it more than I) They had to kill that promotion overnight after 1000's (10,000s???) of orders came in creating a logistical nightmare. Some free promotion sites posted it on their message boards and it spread like a virus. Thank goodness it wasn't our idea. :) This was waaaaay back in the day before Digg, blogging, etc. I'm not even sure if Google was around then. I can't imagine that client doing the same promotion when considering today's blogosphere.

This post came from jemos.com (http://jemos.com/2006/03/17/SocialMarketingExperimentSelling13MOfSoftwareIn3Days.aspx)

I have been attempting to convince you, the readers, that marketing through social software is a great idea. This information seems to prove the theory!

MYspace GROUPS?!

So called groups on social software services are no more than a bunch of people! WRONG!

I am a member of several myspace and facebook groups. I, as I am sure you do as well, only join groups that I can associate with, or find interesting. This, however, does not mean that I live for these groups, and spend all my free time talking to people from them!

For marketing, groups located on social software are a wonderful tool! What better way to reach a target market then to send out a message to a group corresponding with the product for sale.

There are many ways to market to social software users!

WHAT DO YOU THINK are some good ways to market to social software users, (aside from the ones I have mentioned)?

Sellers Voice

My most recent friend acquisition on Myspace is Sellers Voice! Another wonderful service catering to the eBay community. Sellers-Voice allows eBay sellers to ad a vocal track to their eBay auctions, making it impossible for buyers to miss the important details.

This wonderful product is being marketed on Myspace! The account manager for their Myspace marketing added me as a friend, possibly because I am in an eBay club on Myspace.

The service has 2080 friends on Myspace. As I have always mentioned, the friends of friends effect is taking par. Those 2080 friends have other Myspace friends that see this Sellers-Voice, and are possibly intrigued.

This leads me to think of one more way to target specific demographics. What groups do people belong to on FaceBook and Myspace?

My Facebook list is a mile long, and grows whenever I have nothing better to do! I get messages from group leaders about things that may be happening on campus. I may or may not check these things out!

What do you think?

Is targeting advertisements on social software through groups a good way to market products or services, such as Sellers-Voice?

If you received a friend request from a product or service that was a member of, or sponsored by a Myspace or Facebook group to which you belong, would you accept the request?
Would you look at the product and deny the request? (you - the target demographic are still VIEWING the ad!)

Even though you may not wish to see the ad for the specific product, you may have seen it anyway!!! Do you remember things like this, or do you not even look, and ignore these types of requests?