Facebook, Twitter & Social Context Marketing

Hi everyone

Try this, it will only take a minute.

Click here and enter your Facebook login for this Prototype Experience. Then watch the video.

Pretty cool, huh? This is the direction social networking marketing is going, and it is important for 2 key reasons.

1. Context drives engagement
In the future, the Era of Social Context will mean we are able to serve personalized content to users based on their social networking information. And this ‘contextual’ content will not to be limited to just ads or marketing like the Prototype example, but also include all media sites, e-commerce, corporate sites, and TV.

Every brand will adapt, at some level, to this model.

We are moving quickly from fairly static and one-way social marketing model, for example using just a simple Facebook page, to far more engaging applications using features like Facebook Connect that allow us to create a rich, interactive experience and far greater personalization.

The beauty with this approach is that you don’t have to ask people to enter any details, they just log in to Facebook, and you use things they’ve already shared.

Imagine how we could use this data in a campaign? We could use a customer’s personal photos to create personalized marketing with just them as the hero, as with the Prototype example.

Another good example of this is this case study from Doritos called iD3, where coming up with a new flavour has rarely been so socially connected.

2. Engagement drives sales
Importantly, we can also help a customer with an online purchase decision by asking them to connect with Facebook/Twitter so we can give our recommendation/suggestion on what they should buy.

As we all know, customers are far more likely to be involved and interested in a purchase if the message is just right for them. And that’s just what Volkswagen has created in this cute little ad which looks at the info from your Twitter stream and recommends the car most relevant to you.

Test it for yourself here (Volkswagen Rich Media Twitter ad), and if you still do not have a Twitter account, why not try a celeb Twitter name instead!

This is a simple, but totally engaging tool, with huge sales potential. In this interesting article, The Future of the Social Web, Jerimiah Owy explains how the movement towards Social Commerce is quite simply inevitable.

Of course there will be significant hurdles for brands to address in terms of privacy issues. But these will be overcome as people learn how better to filter their social information, and when they see the personal benefits this marketing can deliver them.

Cheers, Rob

Feel free to add comments below, or for further questions or advice contact me at rob.h@th.arcww.com