I just spent a day at AdTech, San Francisco visiting with Facebook, YouTube and several up and coming technology vendors. Here’s a quick recap for you to read. You may want to reassess your marketing plans in light of what’s happening in social media. If you need a quick marketing business plan template, save 50% off with this coupon FB50. (Make sure you copy and paste this code into the promotional box, after the green box, add to cart).
1) YouTube is going to open up their branded channels to small business owners. They used to charge
$250,000 to participate in this program, which pretty much limited the experience to big brands. Now, you’ll be able to add tabs to your channel and create more of a social experience. Look how Cleveland Clinic is using their channel to drive traffic to their website and engage their audience via online video. I circled some items below to help illustrate these points. Subscribe to my channel to get updates.
2) Facebook got rid of “Become a Fan” in favor of “Like” so you now have connections as opposed to “Fans.” The Facebook Connect button and brand will be disappearing and you’ll start seeing Facebook connectivity and features in more locations than ever around the web.
3) Location-based social games are hot for advertisers–Have you heard of Foursquare? The place to “check-in” whenever you’re out and about. It’s kind of like Twitter, only it’s location-based and they reward you for frequency. I understand most of the users are male, by the way. Well, MyTown is similar but with insane targeting by geo-location and they incentivize check-ins. It’s played by over 1.6 Million people and is the most popular location-based social game ever! Users on MyTown are averaging around 70 minutes of playtime a day and it’s now an Apple Staff Favorite. Local businesses can test it out to capture their target market both by category and location. My Town is at the center of the latest hot trend for casual gaming, according to the San Francisco Business Times.
In summary, companies are spending less time and money on building expensive websites in favor of leveraging Free social networking sites like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to expand their audience reach, build trust and engage with their users. Think of it as another way to build word-of-mouth referrals and we all know how valuable those are. E-mail info@rlevinmarketinggroup.com if you need help with your marketing strategies.
Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media, The Cocktail Napkin Marketing Plan™
This post was written by Robyn on April 22, 2010
