No Comments Written by Robert on July 2, 2008 – 10:09 pm

Sites such as MySpace and Facebook have taken the online world by storm. If you are curious as to how big these sites are, consider this; if MySpace were a country, it would be the eleventh largest country in the world by population. Companies can use these sites to reach customers in new ways.

Heavy users of these sites live online, play online, and purchase online. Their interactive nature is the key to using these sites as a platform for your Internet marketing efforts. Much has been written about the early stages of corporations using Facebook. Perhaps the best example to date is Target’s successful Fall 2007 back-to-school campaign on Facebook, its “Dorm Survival Guide” page, which focused on designing your dorm room of course using products available for purchase at Target.

There are over 200 social networking sites. Some cater to the general public, like MySpace and Xanga (a blogging community), while others cater to more niche interests. Linked In is a good example of catering to business professionals (www.linkedin.com). Some companies have even created their own social networks. www.MyCoke.com is a site created by Coca-Cola where users can socialize and earn points for Coca-Cola products.

There are also a variety of services available through these sites. Youtube.com allows users to upload and share videos. Snapfish.com allows users to upload their digital photos and share them with friends and family and link them to social networking sites. Social networking offers marketers new opportunities to reach consumers and offer the ability to efficiently target your marketing efforts.

The great thing about the Internet, and particularly about social network sites, is that if you can think of it, it can most likely be done. Whether you want to use these sites for banner ads, sponsor a contest, or launch a new product, it can be done. An example of this type of product/media launch is Fox using MySpace to debut its new show Free Ride. Another example is Toyota using MySpace to set up their own profile to promote their product and allow users to interact with the brand.

Facebook allows sponsors such as Apple Computer or Electronic Arts Gaming Group to create their own groups. Members of Facebook are then able to join the groups they are interested in. This can offer many advantages to a company, such as product and idea testing, generating feedback loops, or promoting new products.

Since many sites such as MySpace require personal information in order to sign up, it is possible to have your ads targeted at specific geographic regions, ages, and gender. Facebook currently allows advertisers to target users by selecting specific Facebook networks for their ads.

Now that you have the basics, the intermediate and the advanced tips and traps on interactive marketing, we’ll end with one certainty.