Is social media a dead space for Advertisers now?  Certainly not, however, according to this article that was forwarded to me by a friend (thanks Spore); Randall Stross from the NY Times seems to lean in that direction.  I have a few issues with this article, or perhaps, I take issue with the case study presented as well as the social network platform that was used for this particular Advertising promotion.

The case presented was about Crest White Strips which Proctor & Gamble ran a large promotion.  This article discussed P&G’s campaign on Facebook, specifically, and how they felt the campaign fell short of the desired metrics.

According to the article, “Independent experts on Web advertising” has identified “a myriad of difficulties in making brand advertising work on social networking sites.  Members of social networks want to spend time with friends, not brands.”  This is ludicrous.  First off, I would like to know who these “Independent experts” are, and see what level of involvement they have with social networking sites and advertiser campaigns.  As an avid social networking user, I feel that the above quote about users wanting to spend time with friends and not brands is a completely inaccurate statement with a caveat that the brands that are trying to engage the users must position their campaigns in a way that is enticing to that brand enthusiast.

Every advertiser has their own campaign objectives, and their own respective set of metrics that determine success of said campaign.  Social Media Marketing is in the tail end of its infancy, and now, more than ever, we can effectively set social media best practices based on the advertiser’s campaign objectives.  One of the most common misconceptions of a “successful” social networking campaign is how many “friends” that campaign gains.  Although, friend count is a metric that is taken into consideration, it should not be the end-all-be-all metric of success.  Yes, there are many users that are “friend collectors” and in some cases this may skew the metrics in terms of “friends”, however, many advertisers are missing the mark on other success metrics involved.

What determines a successful campaign you ask?  It all depends on the client’s objectives.  Categorically, there are a few general social media campaign types: General Awareness, User Engagement, and Brand Loyalty.  In the web 2.0 environment, Advertisers need to think a little bit more creative, as well as really focus on what they are trying to accomplish with their brand/campaign.  In most cases, friends are not a quantifiable metric, however, the voice of that friend is.  A simple approach to this is for the advertiser to be in the mindset that the “friends” is a sort of focus group where their voice or opinions can be used to gauge the overall outcome of the product.  This data can be invaluable to an advertiser or brand.

The article continues to say “When advertisers invite members to come to pages dedicated to their products, they can attract visitors only by investing in expensive creative material or old-fashioned promotions like prize contests.”  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  Although good creative can play a part in the success of the campaign, it doesn’t have to be the focal point.  There are many ideas that advertisers need to take into consideration for their campaigns; do they already have good brand recognition?  Are they in a position to keep their content fresh for their brand enthusiasts?  Do they actually HAVE content that users can be attracted to?

Let’s take the Jack in the Box campaign on MySpace for example.  In my opinion, this was an extremely successful campaign for many reasons: they leveraged their existing brand recognition and played to the MySpace users, they provided users with witty content, and most importantly, they keep their content updated, where most advertiser fall short.  Notice that they didn’t have to invest in “expensive creative material” for this campaign to gain over 137,000+ friends.  This community keeps the standard user profile feel, so users don’t feel that they are being “advertised” to.

The article continued to discuss advertiser hurdles on Facebook.  In one instance, P&G’s Manager of Interactive Marketing stated a personal reflection, “I really don’t want to buy any more banner ads in Facebook.”, however, another rep from P&G stated that they are “committed to our strong relationship with Facebook.”  There’s a shocker. In most cases, when media is allocated for interactive campaigns, a majority of it is allocated to social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.  For most advertisers, it is extremely beneficial to have a pretty solid media buy on those platforms, considering the vast amounts of users, especially users that can be reached through targeted media, however, those same advertisers really need to put some thought into their campaigns, especially for social networking.

Overall, display ad media is declining in terms of conversion rates.  Why?  Well, I think there are many factors: users are trained of display ad placements and tend to ignore them, the space is inundated with ads that are not-relevant to that end user, and also, the platform (site) on which it’s served can also play a role.  With this in mind, advertisers need to really re-think their campaigns, define their overall objectives, and be creative with their messaging and creative, especially for the social networking space.

In a quick rebut to this entire article, the key thing that was lost by the author (Randall Stross) was the actual platform in which the campaign was served, and why they felt that it failed.  I don’t think Randall knows the social networking space as us that are actually in it, on the front lines, working directly with advertisers/clients and their respective agencies.  Facebook is not the best example of a social networking platform.  It is more of a handy messaging tool.  Users are unable to express themselves or their lifestyles as they can on MySpace or a handful of other social networking sites.  I admit, I use Facebook regularly to keep in touch with people from the past and present, whereas on MySpace, I show my personality more with my profile design, music, etc.

At the end of the day if advertisers REALLY want to have social media work for them, they need to throw out their traditional mindset and be open to the new phenomena known as “New Marketing”, or social media marketing.  There are four great quotes that I’d like to share in hopes that it can potentially reach the key decision makers for social media campaigns.  These can be found on a MySpace client facing blog:

1.    Consumers will be giving you their attention, so respect it.
2.    You’re setting up shop in THEIR neighborhood, so play by their rules
3.    Participate – Community building with consumers is not a spectator sport
4.    Go in it for the long haul, don’t cut and run.

Thoughts?