Social Networking Sites: Ideas for Marketers

ClickZ covers a study about how adults visit social networking sites online.  Enid Burns wrote the article ‘Marketing to Social Networking Sites’, Targeted, and provides some interesting takeaways for marketers.  The study found that,

“One in four adult Internet users in the U.S. regularly visits popular social networking sites, according to “iProspect Social Networking User Behavior Study,” a report sponsored by iProspect and conducted by JupiterResearch”

The article defines a social networking site this way: “one that allows Internet users the ability to add user-generated content such as: comments, review, feedback, ratings, or their own dedicated pages.” Sites such as MySpace, YouTube, and Amazon.com fit the study’s classification of social networking sites. 

I will add for that for business to business audiences two social networking sites are, LinkedIn and Ryze.  These two sites help business folks identify others with similar interests and network based on common objectives.  Many executives use LinkedIn networks to find job candidates and seek contacts in key companies as they conduct business development activities.

The upshot of the study/article is that marketers should carefully select which social networking sites, (or communities), to target with messages (I prefer to think of targeting key sites with rich content and information):

"Participation on these sites can take a couple different forms," said Rob Murray, president of iProspect. "[Marketers] have to pick the right site, picking the one that most closely matches your online audience. Being very transparent in your communication is very important. Each community has its own rules of engagement; a marketer must abide by those rules."

If you are looking for new ways to reach your target audience online, this information suggests to me a couple of ideas:

Ask your prospects what online sites they like.  Online users/consumers find social networking sites that appeal to their interests other ways than by search engines. 

When you identify a key social networking site, create high-value content that fits with the site.
Do not buy a banner ad—unless it is for a useful white paper or guide.  Your goal is for your content to be of enough value to your target audience that it becomes ‘link bait’ or ‘bookmark bait’.

You can read the full Clickz article here.

A note about Ryze, they are organized into special interest networks, i.e., for personal and business coaches.  Here is one for anyone wanting to do business in Japan and many others listed here.

Is anyone having success at finding good business to business social networking sites? Any other uses for LinkedIn or Ryze?