Businesses will need to think carefully about their Web 2.0 marketing strategies to keep their brand reputation in check during 2008, says a new report.
Subtlety and offering users ‘real value’ will be the key to successful online marketing, according to the ‘Impact of Social Networking in the UK’ report.
The report, by retail information company Experian, predicts the emergence of social network ‘super advocates’, influential individuals with a huge following eager to know their thoughts on a business.
According to the company, the super advocate will be the corporate organisation’s ‘biggest ally or enemy’, with the power to ‘make or break’ a brand’s reputation.
2008 will also see the rise of the ‘Web 2.0 Clique’, small communities with limited appeal, targeted at more powerful individuals such as lawyers or executives.
The communities will have stringent membership requirements to protect their ‘exclusive and highly influential’ members.
“Members will want quality of contacts, not quantity,” said a spokesperson for Experian.
The report warned that businesses will need to create a dedicated marketing strategy, focused on monitoring specialist community sites, with subtlety and exclusivity seen as the ‘critical success factors’.
Tony Mooney, co-author of the report, said: “If you asked most marketing directors if they have a Web 2.0 strategy, they’ll probably all nod sagely.
“The reality is that for most companies this consists of a page on Facebook and that’s about as sophisticated as it gets.”
He advised businesses to realise that on social networks, marketing is about understanding the environment, being subtle, and providing real value, not marketing gimmicks.
“Look at some of the marketing gaffes from last year when social network members spotted a hackneyed marketing campaign and tore it to shreds,” he added.
“These companies simply didn’t appreciate Web 2.0’s culture and paid the price by alienating the very people they were trying to attract.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2008
