Research released by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) in the UK suggests that people are growing increasingly tired of requests to join brand pages or install brand applications in Facebook and other social networks. The research found that almost two in every three of the 2,000 respondents to the survey were fed up with the constant requests to join groups and try new applications.
Digging deeper into the research reveals more information. When asked what they disliked most about social networks, the most popular response (with 31% of respondents citing this) was too many invites to install applications. The second most cited dislike (16% of respondents) was advertising that "isn't relevant to me". Remaining dislikes have relatively low incidences (such as the 5% of respondents who dislike the "addictiveness" of the social networks themselves). And 12% of respondents reported no dislikes at all.
It is the insight into the attitudes to branded content, pages and applications that is, however, most interesting from a social media marketing perspective. With so many people saying they are turned of by invites to join pages, install applications or join groups, brands need to work harder to get a consumer's attention and to get them to engage with them.
Of course, this has never been easy. In fact, engaging people in social networks has always been difficult for brands. Social networks are very personal spaces where users go to connect with their network of friends - to share photos, plan events, keep up with what they have been doing and to message them. They are personal spaces focused on the individual user and their connections and as such can be difficult for brands to enter. People are having a personal conversation and interaction and are sometimes sceptical of the role of a brand in this space.
The most successful uses of social networks by brands are less about getting people to do things with them in this space, but using it as part of a hub-and-spoke model. Rather than a brand trying to engage people separately in Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and every other social network and forum site, it is better to use these as gateways to somewhere else. People may not want to engage with you and interact with you in Facebook, but they may be willing to find out more about you and then, if and when they want to engage, go somewhere else better designed for this.
This is really where online communities come in. If social networks are personal spaces where people connect round friends, online communities are spaces where people connect round a shared interest, idea, theme or topic. It's much easier for brands to play in this space. To get people to engage with you, talk to them and interact with them. It's your party that they have chosen to join, rather than being their party you have interrupted.
So this IAB survey comes as no real surprise to us at FreshNetworks. We know that social networks are difficult places for brands and it can be best to use them not as the start and end of your engagement or marketing strategy. It is better to work with social networks, and the people in them, as part of a more developed approach. Meeting people in social networks but bringing them to a place you host to really engage with them.
Some more reading
- Components of Social Media Marketing: The Moogis Case by Wyndstorm (fastforwardblog.com)
- More notes from "Social Media Marketing" (specialdee.wordpress.com)
- Social Media Marketing Industry Report (incsub.org)
- Charlene Li Predicts Social Networking Will Be Ubiquitous, 'Like ... (jonggunlee.tistory.com)
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