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Social Networking Goes Big Business
PreacherTom writes, "It is no secret that sites like Facebook and MySpace are big hits among students. Big business is catching on to their possibilities too. Even in the wake of online stalking scandals, companies such as JP Morgan Chase, Apple, and Burger King are building whole marketing campaigns around social networking sites, to the tune of an estimated $280 million in 2006. It appears to be working: take the King, for example, who has amassed more than 120,000 'friends' that opt (for rewards) to associate themselves with his profile." These marketing drives are aimed at younger consumers, but (from the article): "About 36% of MySpace users are people aged 35-54, as are 30% of Facebook users."
Big business is catching on to their possibilities too.
What do you mean "is catching on"? News Corp (FOX) bought Myspace for 500 million a year ago.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
How can they stop advertisers marketing junk food to younger people? when half of the people on these sites aren't who they say they are (exaggeration).
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
I see this fad burning out in the next few years as teens move on to something else, or grow out of it. Now when the investing companies can get a larger adult user base, they'll have a chance at a long term business.
I'm glad I'm not into that crap. People get stupider by merely visiting those sites. I wish those teenager would spend their time on wikipedia, and actually learn something useful.
I have to wonder whether or not social networking sites will continue to be hot two or three years down the line. I guess i'm being a bit old-fogeyish since after all we're talking about the 18-24 demographic. It's kind of old hat for me; for someone who is 18 years old I guess it's sort of new though. Either way, after about 2 or 3 years of that I found that the more I used them the less I liked using them, simply because as a particular networking tool becomes more prevalent among your friends (and those unfortunate acquaintances) you find yourself willing to disclose less information about yourself or commit to as many activities via the site.
Your customers tell you all about themselves, voluntarily and for free.
Contrary to most geek's ideas, marketing is bloody difficult. It's actually very expensive, very hard work. You're essentially trying to model human society. That's why they'll pay you to answer questions.
Deleted
Same $#it, different brand.
Advertisers have a hard time trying to advertise to the right demographics. Anyone who's worked in any business that has an advertising budget (pretty much any business) knows that setting up advertising campaigns is like throwing a dart in the dark at a dartboard a mile away.
With social networking sites, everybody will give you their information – with that kind of information disclosure, there's almost no need for research teams!
Of course, there's the whole pedophile stalking issue, but without them we would never have those entertaining Dateline NBC series. As long as people aren't stealing identities and slapping their watermark on them, we should be fine.
;)
Or, as Matthew McConnahguguadgwrhwrhwrhweugh's character (wooderson) said in Dazed and Confused "That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age."
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
who has amassed more than 120,000 'friends' that opt (for rewards) to associate themselves with his profile."
What kind of a social network has to buy it's friends?
I really kind of marvel at the way social networking has evolved on the web. Corporations have sunk their teeth into it, but the fit hasn't been very good, has it?
Part of that is that social networking needs to stop being centered around isolated websites that function as islands, seperated from each other. Instead, social networks need to function like the internet themselves: Interoperable, decentralized, and based on open standards.
Think of how much email would suck if I had to be the same server as you to send you one? Why do I have to be on Myspace.com to add someone as a friend? There is no single, technical reason why I couldn't be on Friendster.com and add a MySpace user as a friend.
What's preventing that kind of functionality is social, not technical.
As a side note, I think the best thing to happen to social networking is if it stops being "cool." If it stops being something you talk about in that hip, 1996 Wired Magazine kinda way, and starts being just something that is.
30% of Facebook users are 35 or older? I thought that it was invented for college students. I mean, the extensions to high school students makes the population younger, and my impression of the corporate networks has been something targeted at recent alums. Something smells fishy here - I think that social networking and its related revenues (advertising) remains the domain of the young, with too much time on their hands.
Some social networks depend on a large number of mostly meaningless "friends" that make a social circle. Others, like http://www.personio.com/ do a much more thorough job at predicting compatibility.
This article seems a bit lame, so I'll propose a rather pertinent question to the /.ers that decided to hang around for discussion: what forms of monetization of social networks do you think are a good idea? Are there any that won't piss off users while still making good returns? Are here any you are surprised no one is doing yet? Yes, there's advertising, but there has to be so much more there just waiting to be realized.
Myspace was called Geocities and you only had to put a link to their webpage to claim you were friends with the other person.
no appreciable "cool factor"
They're not making friends with "Burger King", they're making friends with The Burger "King", a character designed such as to appeal to tweens and teens who have grown too old for Ronald McDonald, yet still are likely to frequent fast food restaurants. Brilliant campaign by Crispin Porter. Check out pictures of their revived king-- the guy would be right at home in any Snoop Dogg video.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
kids aged xx - xx are so fickle and will move on blah blah..
well guess what? There will ALWAYS be people in that age group!!
what does it matter that the current crop will get bored of it? NULL
geekspace.com and nerdspace.com are taken.
Is it me, or has the amount of advertising reached an all time high? Everywhere I look I see "Buy! BUY! Buy!" No wonder the national saving rate is currently negative. We are digging ourselves way into debt. I think this is not good in the long term. I wonder how long can this last and if there will be a backlash.
Advertising on social networking sites looks like a good idea, but I wonder when people will say no more and avoid these advertisement websites. I think people will eventually look for web communities where advertising is a minimum. And many people will pay for advertising-free websites.
Burger King, an international chain of restaurants which has been in business for over 50 years, designs a new mascot and gets 127,220 MySpace friends.
Christine Dolce, an unemployed twenty-something cosmetologist who may well have been conceived in the parking lot of a Burger King, bleached her hair and took off her shirt to get 1,022,716 friends.
I think the jury is in on just what the Internet is used for.
a.) If you think that a collection of "friends" that you don't know, you've never spoken to, and have no real-world connection makes you cool, you are exactly the type of guillible, low-IQ, idiot that advertisers love. b.) If you buy or invest in a company that claims it can make millions from getting morons to visit a website where a collection of "friends" that they don't know, they've never spoken to, and have no real-world connection makes them cool, you are exactly the type of guillible, low-IQ, idiot that start-up CEOs love.
The U.S. Air Force recently announced their own myspace site. They have been promoting it in base newspapers and with a companion site. It officially launches on 18Sep.
"What kind of a social network has to buy it's friends?"
I can think of several, the largest is governments, that use the carrot and stick of extremely strange and convulted tax structures to reward (buy through wealth transference) friends and punish (fines, fees, incarceration) enemies
then churches (pay us such and such and you'll get such and such, plus camarderie and some vague ethereal promises)
then political parties (you get to hamg out with clones of yourself and sit around and complain it is all the liberalconservative's fault, wile listening to your favorite cloned talk radio ranter who says the same thing-all the while donating cash plus buying the radio ranters junk like ghost written books)
then professional sports team (you get to be a physical macho man simultaneously while being a lardass girly man by your team "winning" and "killing" the other team, and you get to sit next to others who are exactly the same)
online gaming (should be beyond self explanatory there)
and some more. Basically any large group of people with similar interests has a cost and benefit angle to it if you really look at it. In some ways you have to be bought in, in other ways you pay to be "in". Slashdot is an example. FOSS community is another.
These marketing drives are aimed at younger consumers, but (from the article): "About 36% of MySpace users are people [...]"