Marketing by Myspace

Are social media site becoming advertising hotspots?

by Rupert Sharp
of http://www.oyster-web.co.uk

Last updated: 12 Sep 2007

The answer is simply yes. Originally frequented only by individuals to expand their online social horizons, now taken advantage of by businesses and organisations because of the huge amount of users that register for these sites. Meetup groups and clubs often target these sites to give out information about upcoming events and try get as many 'friends' as possible in order to spread the word faster. This strategy is proven, someone sees your company or organisation on a friend's 'friends list' and checks it out, the likelihood of targeting the right market is high as you have the choice to aim at people with similar interests i.e. the ones most likely to be interested in your organisation.

Bands big and small have been using this idea for quite awhile to promote their music, most sites now have a section where bands can submit their information into a separate type of profile to avoid clogging up the regular users. Although this is an effective technique the possibility of users being spammed to death by organisations trying to get the user to add them is quite worrying, it will work providing the company in question is discerning in who they target or social media users will simply shy away from using their accounts.