Social Network Marketing

Nowadays, almost everyone has a profile on a social network site (Hyves, Facebook, Hi5 etcetera). A lot of new social network sites are developing, and it seems that in the future these social network sites will continue to grow and expand even more. This development is noticed by the organizational life. They are searching for a way to promote their product(s) or brand(s) on these social network sites. This is a smart move, because there are so many people all over the world who are engaged in these social networks. The organizations will reach a lot of people, with low costs. It’s especially interesting for organizations to get involved in communities within these social network sites. Communities are networks that are established around a ‘hobby’ – organizations just have to find a community with a hobby that fits their product(s) or brand(s), and start advertising. The members of such a community have certain special features: they are interested in the brand, they are committed to the brand and are highly involved. In this way, an organization reaches a big online network with potential clients. Of course, the role of (online!) word-of-mouth principle has a central role in all of this.

An example of the online marketing in social networks is a recent one: it’s all about valentine’s day. This is a very commercial day, and organizations are focusing their (love)arrows on the innocent members of the social network sites. They advertise on these pages, and before a visitor knows it, he or she is subscribed to some kind of texting-subscription. Well, the advertising- and marketing world found a new way to exploit this ‘romantic’ day.