This video was filmed at the Social Ad Summit.
Stay tuned for the next conference that explores the future of social media advertising.
We all know that Facebook and other social networking sites are big, and getting bigger – currently 37 percent of adult Internet users and 70 percent of teens visit social networking sites at least once a month. What we don’t yet fully know is whether they can be an advertising or brand-building medium – and if so, how?
Buddy Media’s, Mike Lazerow, might have the answer to this question. At last week’s Social Ad Summit Mike discussed how marketers could connect with the 500 million plus people currently on social networks today. His presentation outlined the present state of a burgeoning business and the positive outlook for the future. Mike included a high-level breakdown of strategies for marketing big brands to highly targeted audiences on social networks like Facebook. (Take a look at the presentation for more details.)
Mike, in his presentation, noted how advertisers no longer look to advertise using a simple model of reach and frequency–but rather more of a reach and engagement model. Given the growing importance of engagement, branded social media applications – such as those developed by Mike’s company, Buddy Media – offer advertisers a unique opportunity to use social networks to engage in an emotional, efficient way with their target audiences. By doing so they are building social brand loyalty.
The current data on branded applications, found on Buddy Media’s BuddyBrain, backs Mike up. Specifically, users spent more than two and a half minutes engaging with the last 10 branded applications developed by Buddy Media, which 75 times greater than the time they spend on average with banner ads, and even 5 times greater than they spend watching TV ads. And with 85% of users returning to use the branded application multiple times, users are clearly receiving emotional value from these engagements that make them come back for more.
According to Mike, companies now face three basic challenges that keep them from taking advantage of social network marketing opportunities. They need to stop being distracted by and cut through all the noise sounding social networks, focus on finding branded applications and other social media marketing opportunities that work and can scale, and make sure that that they measure how users engage with and response to their social network marketing activities. Given the power and reach of social networks, those companies able to overcome these challenges could take the lead in social network marketing, and soon see the value of their brands, and their sales, rise.
