According to Mediaweek MySpace will begin offering advertisers a way of targeting users based on all that personal information they supply about themselves.
MySpace, who has been conspicuously quiet recently as Facebook has taken its mantle as the social networking favorite is said to be rolling out a new HyperTargeting ad platform. This ad platform will allow brands to target narrow audience segments using user-interest data. MySpace has been beta testing this service since the summer with a select group of major marketers like Procter & Gamble, Microsoft and Toyota.
According to Advertising Age Facebook is expected to unveil a new social retailing feature today (November 6th). The feature will allow Facebook members to share with people in their network what they bought, where they bought and also information on the product like a discount or coupon. What a Google killer this could be. A recent emarketer study showed that 37% of people in the U.S. use a search engine to find where to buy a product online. Now all they have to do is ask their friend on Facebook!
I was totally flabbergasted when I read in Internet Retailer about the recent Coremetrics’ second annual “Face of the New Marketer” survey. The number that generated this response was this:
78% of the 116 senior marketing managers responding to the survey see social media marketing as a way to gain a competitive edge, only 7.75% of total online marketing spend is devoted to it
Following up on yesterday’s post about What Sites Do Social Media Users Frequent? which said that heavy users of social networking sites are significantly more likely than average to visit leisure-oriented retail site categories, such as music, jewelry/luxury goods/accessories and consumer electronics than the average Internet user.
Well a new new report from Ipsos Insight has similar results in that Americans who visit social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are more than three times as likely to download music or video files on their mobile phones than those who have never entered such sites.
A new study from comScore shows that heavy users of social networking sites favor leisure-related retail sites. Heavy users of social networking sites are significantly more likely than average to visit leisure-oriented retail site categories, such as music, jewelry/luxury goods/accessories and consumer electronics than the average Internet user.
According to data from Internet Retailer, heavy social networkers accounted for 28.5% of visitors to music sites and 26.5% of visitors to jewelry/luxury goods/accessories sites. In addition, they represented nearly one-quarter of visitors to apparel sites (24.8%), tickets sites (24.5%), consumer electronics sites (23.9%), sports/outdoor sites (23.8%), computer software sites (23.7%), book sites (23.6%), movie sites (23.4%) and computer hardware sites (22.7%).
Following up on yesterdays post about how Customer Reviews Becoming More Important, it appears that consumer product reviews are also credible, at least according to a Deloitte Consumer Product Group-sponsored study.
“Some online retailers are reporting higher sales conversion rates as a result of allowing customers to post product reviews on their Web sites,” said Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer.
Emarketer had some interesting data recently about how online shoppers in the US are turning to user reviews more than expert reviews when researching products. In an Avenue A | Razorfish study, they found that over 50% of online shoppers doing research said they consulted user reviews most often.
“It’s clear that new Web technologies have put consumers in control,” said Garrick Schmitt, vice president of user experience at Avenue A | Razorfish.
Last month I blogged how Orbitz had joined the social networking bandwagon with the launch of the Traveler Update section to its web site. Not satisfied with simply adding social networking features to its website, Orbitz now wants people to use them!!
The Traveler Update is a service that allows travelers to share real-time information regarding what’s happening in and around the nation’s top airports and to encourage participation Orbitz is running a contest where from now through October 28, 2007 where the “Top 100” contributors to Traveler Update will be eligible to win two free first class airline vouchers.
Interesting data on Advertising Age on what brands resonate with college age students. The study was conducted by Anderson Analytics and clearly shows the difference between college age men and women online.
Did you know that social networking is twice as popular with 18-24 year old women as with men? And that MySpace which was the most popular social networking site last year is now #2 with women and not in the top 5 for men? That means if you are using MySpace to target the college crowd that you are reaching a lot more females than males. So make sure that the ad campaign is female focused or it will not be that successful.
Yesterday I wrote about Target and how they were able to successfully launch a marketing campaign on Facebook. While the Target campaign was running, Wal-Mart also tested the social networking waters again with its own social marketing efforts. Unfortunately, the results were not a good as Target’s.
Target was successful on Facebook for a couple of reasons. One was that the ad agency spent time on Facebook and understood how Facebook users were interacting with each other. They changed their marketing message to fit the Facebook audience, and they turned down the volume of their marketing message.
