Social networking has grown beyond a fad and into an Internet phenomenon. In December of 2006 Time magazine’s coveted Person of the Year went to ‘You’ – people who have participated in user-generated Internet content websites such as blogs, video-file sharing sites like YouTube, and social networks like MySpace and Facebook. As a result, more companies are investing in was to use social networking to reach consumers on both a local and a global scale.

Today, there are more than 350 million social network users, which is more than the total U.S. population.

Social Networking No Longer Child’s Play

According to The Luxury Institute’s latest WealthSurvey titled, The Wealthy and Web 2.0, the rate of participation in online social networks increased to 60% in January 2008, from 27% in January 2007 for U.S. Internet users with annual household income of $100,000 or more. The report also notes that, on average, these users are members of about three social networks and have 110 online connections through these sites.

These figures indicate that the social networking phenomenon is not just for the high school/college crowd anymore. It is an exceptional way for companies to reach targeted markets that have disposable income — which, in turn, can benefit any business regardless of their size.

Social Media Advertising

As the social networking phenomenon continues to grow, so does social media advertising. Social media advertising is not advertising in the conventional sense; companies can post their video or blog content for free on many popular sites like Facebook, YouTube or Blogger. This has become one of the favorite forms of guerrilla marketing for two simple reasons: user-generated content is popular and distribution is free.

What Is a Social Networking Ad Campaign?

Social media advertising campaigns are like any other media campaign – they are only successful if they are spread across many different channels. In general, successful companies advertise in more than just one medium; otherwise, it is not a campaign, but rather a single advertisement. The same applies to social media advertising: the more social networks a company uses to publish content, the more target customers they will reach. People often think ‘MySpace or Facebook’ when mentioning social media advertising, but those are only two sites that offer user-generated content. Consider other sites too like:

blackplanet.com – targeted for the African American community

buzznet.com – those interested in music and pop-culture

flickr.com – for photo sharing buffs

livejournal.com – a general social blogging

mocospace.com – targeted to mobile device users

These are only a few: a simple search into niche markets can reveal there are many social networking sites available to a variety of businesses, oftentimes with a very specific focus or audience.

How to Create a Social Networking Campaign?

The social networking phenomenon exists and is continually growing; but how can a business take advantage of this and start a social networking campaign? First, the company should examine how to showcase their products. For example, a company that sells gardening equipment can create videos that show new products in action, rather than a traditional commercial. For example, the Blendtec company started a campaign for their blender products using a series of videos showing their blenders being used on objects such as iPhones and golf balls. What started as videos posted on sites such as YouTube eventually spawned a following on a number of blogging websites. Rather than creating a standard commercial for their products, Blendtec was able to create support by showing their product in an unconventional and interesting way. A company can also create a blog that provides information related to their product. Using the example of a gardening equipment company, a blog that provides gardening tips and information will draw customers to the site. The key is to stay consistent and continually offer new information to customers in an interesting and original way. This will keep customers coming back to the site for more.

In addition to creating content for your site, it is important to create a network of links to other related sites. By creating links to and from other related websites, you not only increase the amount of traffic enters your site, but you can also increase your site’s ranking on popular search engines. Again, using the example of a gardening company, by providing reciprocal links to other gardening websites, the users of both sites can interconnect. It is not uncommon for sites to see a large spike in traffic when they are listed on popular blog sites such as digg.com or del.icio.us.

The social networking phenomenon continues to grow. Social networking and social media advertising provide a new and diverse way for businesses to stay competitive and get the most out of their advertising budget.

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