Social Networking Sites and Other Social Media

Social media is a catchall phrase describing online channels of communication that build communities. Social media spending for marketing purposes doubled in 2008 and is predicted to top over $50 billion. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are being used to create communities to promote products. A company targets consumers by placing ads on a person's site based on what Facebook or MySpace knows about the person—just as ads are placed on a radio or TV station and matched to certain audiences. Consumers also send other consumers links and information and communities can form around the Facebook or MySpace page. Facebook, along with GiveReal, an online service that allows people to give one another real gifts online, has teamed up to be able to provide Facebook users the ability to give real coupons (downloadable to a credit card) to their friends. Viral marketing and "going viral" are phrases coined to describe messages that quickly spread throughout the online community. Blogs are another form of online communication that help spread viral marketing messages. Some blogs are written by corporate marketing officers who "spin" the information. Twitter is another online environment that allows people to "follow" an organization or person. When the company posts something to Twitter, the post is sent as a text message to all the people signed up as followers of that company.