Every smart marketer realises that getting in on the recent hype of social media is a smart move. Traditional marketing is giving way to a new exciting method of marketing communication, blogs, viral media, and social networks all have one thing in common. They are young and dynamic and typically understood by the younger generation.
Ask a typical 35+ year old marketing manager about how they operate or how best to weave a marketing message into the fabric of web2.0 and the typically aren’t so sure. Ask a 16 year old if they have a Facebook, or Bebo profile and the answer is inevitably a yes. That provides an interesting platform to reach the younger generation particularly if your product offering is of value to them. A number of companies have got in on the action, developing
Google has recently (1st November) released OpenSocial, an open source javascript based development platform which gives access to Orkut data. For developers this is an exciting move, allowing them to build applications around this platform – however there is one caveat – Orkut is typically only popular in Brazil and India, and isn’t part of the mainstream social networks in the UK. So for now you are better concentrating on Facebook apps if you are developing for a social network. (Bebo has yet to provide any API etc for doing so). Knowing Google though, I’d say that Orkut gets a marketing drive in the next year or so. One thing is for sure – the viral nature of all of these mediums has played a substantial part in getting them off the ground, and developing something viral in nature is of extreme importance.
