Advertising and Promotions - Social Network Advertising and Promotions

ADVERTISING AND PROMOTIONS

PRESENTED BY:

MEGHA GROVER

KIAMS, HARIHAR

0-9341991530

grvr.megha@gmail.com

SOCIAL NETWORK ADVERTISING AND PROMOTIONS

According to wiki, Social media is commonly referred as "The use of web based and mobile technologies to run communication into interactive dialogue". No doubt, the advent of social networking sites has completely changed the way, people communicate with each other. Preference has now grown to scrap, tweet or post on the wall rather than waiting for face to face chatting. According to Borrell Associates, marketers will spent over $38 billon on social media advertising and promotions by 2015.

Social networking is emerging as the best next thing in the public relations job and media and social are acting as social creatures. Companies are now using professional photos on their websites to showcase their culture and talent. A new segment of companies has created and companies like Weblo.com allows advertisers to connect to users that want to get ads for their social networking profiles, blogs, emails and online videos.

Due to the growing popularity of web based social networking sites models such as facebook, Orkut, Bigadda, Myspace, YouTube, Fropper and Second life has given a parallel position to the web world to the real marketing that could be attractive for advertising and marketing. Ford used the similar ways to promote its product Fiesta. It tapped 100 top bloggers and gave them a Fiesta for six months. They are required to upload a video on YouTube about the car atleast once a month, and they're encouraged to talk about the driving experience of Fiesta on their blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

Secondlife.com is a 3-D virtual world has millions of users with single or multiple avatars in it. It a simulation game providing which includes lots of features such as voice, chat and other elements. Wipro and IBM have already opened up the innovation centres in secondlife.com. KPMG has also succeeded in conducting a recruitment fair through secondlife.com which would translate into lot of savings and convenience. Other than this, companies such as Coke and Nike have done some marketing activities through Secondlife. ITC has also come up with similar with bingeonbingo.com, which creates a social networking environment to promote Bingo. The total gaming industry In India is worth Rs.21 crores according to the recent report published by IMRB.

Time changed and facebook has expanded its foothold from mere college students to the vast outside world. Not only have the external employees, even the internal employees found their own identity within the large organization. For people who think the networks are just for kids, the average new Facebook enrollee is in the mid-30s.

And it is not only the common people who are changing their lives with the latest inventions even the Indian government is turning high tech and public sector is reviving itself with the changing technologies and the way in which the communication occurs.

The communication which will not fight against the inefficiencies of the government but will also fastens the process. A very good instance of the government initiation can be explained by the step taken by the planning commission. It recently published its own page on Facebook, giving the glimpse of the contents of the 12th year plan. Also, the discussion forum column will register the complaints of the common man.

The twelfth year plan will be commenced in 2012-13 but before revealing, an approach Paper has been prepared showcasing the key challenges and approaches required to achieve those objectives. The Paper has been approved by Cabinet and National development council. According to the Planning Commission, the approach Paper will evolve through web based consultative process in which all interested persons can participate.

Similar examples can be quoted by the steps taken by Delhi Police to counteract the inflating crime rate. Twitter and facebook have got the mainstream. Delhi Citizens will now listens to the updates about the traffic situation. The step was taken to resolve the traffic issues, which arose during the period of the Commonwealth Games.

Marketers who closely follow social media can find some enticing statistics to justify their online strategies:

* Facebook is been used by more than 10,000 websites by the option Facebook Connect, a service that lets Facebook users log in to affiliated sites using their Facebook account and share information from those sites with their Facebook friends. Not only this, About 30 million Facebook members access it through mobile devices.

* Twitter users spend 66% more dollars on the Internet than non-Twitter users according to the research conducted by market researcher ComScore.

* LinkedIn has more than 365,000 company profiles. More than 12 million small-business professionals are members of LinkedIn.

* MySpace has more than 1 million small businesses and individuals promote their goods and services on MySpace.

Not only the internet service providers but telecom service providers also following the league as the Smart phones such as iPhone and BlackBerry take off, more people are updating their Facebook and Twitter profiles while on the move. In the year 2009-10, Smartphone shipments surged to 164 million, up 13% from 2008, says market researcher Forward Concepts. Social media services had a profound effect on how millions of Indians especially those who are under age of 35 who not only interact with others but also shop and view brands.

With the increasing penetration of the Internet users both in rural and semi urban areas, usage of social networking sites is growing rapidly.

Some of the biggest companies like Ford, Levi Strauss and Chevron, to name a few are reengineering marketing operations to embrace digital tools to more nimbly brand products, support customers and cash in on the social-media wave. In doing so, they are creating online communities and aggressive outreach programs, and being brutally honest in talking directly to their customers.

* Blogs allows chronological flow of thoughts, status and ideas. It catches the way in which the consumer's mind think.

* They encourage collaboration,