Social Media Frenzy!

Lately I have really gotten involved in the world of social networking sites.  I have always used Facebook but that was about the extent of it.  However in the past month or so, I have completely immersed myself into the bottomless pit of social media.  

Bottomless Pit of Social Networks

Now, not only do I have a Facebook account, but I also upload my videos to youtube (I have over 40 now), tweet everyday on twitter, and for the more professional media, I created a linkedin account, which may or may not help me find a job one day.  Also this very blog is a form of social media.  So what does this all mean?  Well for the individual and marketers, it means very different things.

For the individual, a social network is a way to express ideas, communicate, and stay in touch with people.  It can be complete strangers or your very close friend or relative.  The world is moving online.  Even friendships have gone online.   They can be a hobby for some (like me) or just a quick distraction from work for others (like me as well).  

However, for the marketer, they mean a completely different thing: a great, FREE opportunity to reach hundreds and thousands of people with their advertising message.  It is a way to get people interested about your company and a way for word-of-mouth to spread about you.  The problem is, most companies don’t know how to harness the power of social media and it just becomes a headache for them.  Companies that are out of touch sometimes make a facebook or myspace page and think they’ve done enough.  Social networking is a very ACTIVE field of marketing that you have to keep up with in order for it to be successful.

According to AdAge, the most social brands of 2008 were the iPhone (by far), followed by CNN, Apple, Disney, and Xbox to round out the top five.  These brands were mentioned the most on a giant index of social networking sites.  I don’t know what it all means.  Social networking is extremely valuable and I think the reason companies get frustrated with it is that it is very difficult to measure the results.  No matter the results, that is where the industry is going and companies need to jump on while they still can or they will get left far behind, especially in such a competitive economy like the one we are faced with today.