39

SOCIAL MARKETING

39.1 Market Assessment

According to eMarketer (www.emarketer.com), advertising spending on online
social networks has been, and is projected, as follows:
• 2009: $1.21 billion (3.9%)
• 2010: $1.29 billion (7.1%)
• 2011: $1.39 billion (7.7%)

Spending in 2009 was distributed as follows:

• MySpace: $465 million
• Facebook: $335 million
• All others: $410 million

39.2 Advertising on Social Networks

MySpace, owned by News Corp., and Facebook are among the most trafficked
sites on the Internet. While spending was higher at MySpace than at Facebook in
2009, spending is projected by eMarketer to be higher at Facebook in 2010, $450
million vs. $360 million for MySpace.
Social networking now accounts for 11% of all time spent online in the U.S.
According to The Nielsen Company (www.nielsen.com), the number of unique
visitors for the leading social networking sites in January 2010 was as follows:
• Facebook: 112 million
• MySpace: 50 million
• Twitter: 20 million

Social networks are trying new ways to incorporate advertising into their sites.
MySpace’s HyperTargeting initiative, for example, has helped double CPMs (cost per
thousand impressions) at the site, and 75% of advertisers that have tried it continue to
service, according to eMarketer. Facebook’s SocialAds concept attempts to improve
the relevance of advertising by mining the connections between Facebook members.
Both sites are also seeing new revenue streams from local advertising and from self-
service advertising programs that allow marketers to execute ad buys using an
automated system.

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39.3 Brand-Supported Social Sites
Several major brands have launched social networking sites. Branded sites
overcome much of the adversity to promotions compared with general social networks
because people who visit the sites do so to engage with the brand. The following are
some examples of brand-sponsored social sites:
• Johnson & Johnson hosts CampBaby and BabyCenter, targeting moms through
online messages, videos, and bulletin boards. One message board askes moms to
post their thoughts on having their first baby; there were more than 100 responses
almost overnight. The sites promote the company’s brands and also accept
advertising from other companies.
• Pepperidge Farm introduced its Connecting Through Cookies campaign centered
around the social site ArtOfTheCookie.com. The site is designed to help women
improve their social lives. One feature, for example, is a discussion by Sally
Horchow–co-author with Roger Horchow of The Art of Friendship: 70 Simple Rules
for Making Meaningful Connections (St. Martin’s Press, 2006)–on the topic of
making and maintaining friendships. With a budget of about $3 million, the
campaign includes a public relations initiative, a survey of American women on the
topic of friendship, and print advertising.
• Phillips-Van Heusen launched WeAreEllisIsland.org in 2007, playing up its
American roots by sharing stories of immigrants coming to the U.S. through Ellis
Island.
• Proctor & Gamble, in conjunction with NBC Universal, launched Petside.com, which
offers a full menu of information about dogs and cats. There are links to shopping
sites as well as ads for P&G brands, and visitors are encouraged to set up social
networking profiles in order to meet other pet owners.

Driving traffic to these sites is one of the challenges for host companies. While
the payoff can be significant, many are finding that marketing campaigns and
investments in ads are necessary for getting their sites noticed. Executed correctly,
social-networking sites can help a company maintain a long-term conversation with its
most ardent fans.

39.4 Business Use of Social Sites

In a recent survey reported by the Center for Media Research businesses rated
the importance of social media technology as follows:
• Very important: 43%
• Somewhat important: 36%
• Unimportant: 17%
• Very unimportant: 4%
• Don’t know: 1%

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 Survey respondents plan to adopt social media as follows:
• Blogging: 44%
• Online video: 36%
• Message/bulletin boards: 32%
• Twitter: 27%
• Podcasting: 27%
• Wikis: 15%
• Social networking: 14%

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