Marketing on Social Network Sites

One of the most popular Web 2.0 Marketing tools is social networks. But they aren't as easy to implement and measure from a marketing and monetary perspective.

Social Networks are often praised as great marketing tools for companies. But they are all they are cracked up to be especially if they aren’t used properly.

According to Jeremy Owyang, social media strategist for Forrester and blogger of Web Strategist there are many issues with marketing on social network sites, some of which include:

• Marketing is difficult to monetize: Probably one of the biggest issues for a marketer is that it’s hard to determine how social networks increase sales or profits for a company. Owyang says social networks are about sharing information and communication. Measuring how that contributes to sales is difficult in comparison to measuring how search advertising contributes.
• Large number of white label players: White label social networks are social networking sites that allow you to setup a social network for your company and brand it appropriately. With the high number of these types of vendors out there it’s difficult to know which one is the best to use and if it will draw the membership you need.
• Untrustworthy Member Data: How can an organization be sure that the data provided by members is real information? They can’t, but can only trust that people are signing up for a valid reason and thus providing valid data.
• Lack of access to Metrics to Measure Success: If an organization isn’t deploying on their own servers, it’s hard to get the metrics from the hosting server that will help understand how the site is performing.

These are just some of the issues with a social network as a marketing tool. That’s not to say you shouldn’t consider them, just be aware of potential issues. In some cases, using existing networks like Facebook might be the best option than going to a white label version.