Can Social Media Save Advertising?

You’ve created your Twitter account, made your Facebook and MySpace profile, uploaded your pictures to Flickr and stumble your way through StumbleUpon, shared your bookmarks on Del.i.cious, so now what?  The internet is abuzz with hype about social media and web 2.0 apps.  If you were to believe the conversations online, if you’re not online in at least five different places, then you don’t exist. 

The experts are right in some regards. While the amount of people online with active profiles is steadily rising.  Facebook reports to have 150 million active users (they count an active user as someone that has logged in within the past 90 days).  That’s a lot of people and it’s just one networking service. Now that the economy is in the toilet in most of the world, media evangelist are heralding the social media revolution and how it will save advertising.  While social media makes huge strides every year, we’re still a 2-5 years before it hits the mainstream. 

Sure the motrin moms were able to get Johnson & Johnson to take down an ad but we’re talking about a few hundred people raising a stink.  Hardly mainstream and if social media pundits didn’t raise awareness of it, it’s doubtful, Johnson & Johnson would have even known about furor. 

Social media is still in the honeymoon phase.  Large corporations are finally pulling their heads out of their shells and taking a look at corporate blogging, social networking pages and online viral marketing.  The companies that get on board now are the ones that will benefit most. In the past, it’s been about controlling the message. In the next four years, the way corporations interact with people will change because the message delivery system and feedback methods will change.  Any new advertising campaign should have some element of social media to support it. 

Social media advertising isn’t work like online advertising.  It’s not banner ads or pop ups or commercials that play in little boxes.  It’s about creating dynamic participation on both the company and the consumers part.  Kraft Foods has done an excellent job with this.  They already had a Facebook recipe application, which hardly anyone was using (152 monthly active users).  Instead of just being another app that clutters up your Facebook account, Kraft is giving six meals to families in need for every person that adds the application.  In a few weeks they have added more than 37,000 users, which equals 1.7 million meals. 

Kraft doesn’t show their products or advertise mac & cheese with this app.  It’s about creating good will for a mega corporation and making people feel good about their brand.  The positive aspects should generate more sales down the road for them and make people hold the company in a better light.

This is just one example of a large corporation reaching out to consumers in a way that makes their users want to support them. More brands have failed at social marketing than succeeded because they failed to realized that you have to give consumers a reason to care. Advertising is advertising no matter what the medium.  If you don't engage the audience, they won't bother looking at you twice.  It doesn't matter if you're doing a YouTube viral video or Facebook app, becoming part of the conversation and engaging people, instead of waiting for them to come to you, will pay off.

What other companies are using social media to successfully reach their market?

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He love to talk about social media and won't shut up about Twitter.