Social networking sites of the cyber age such as Myspace, Bebo, Habbo Hotel and socialise.co.nz, are an open invitation to marketers seeking to target the Gen-C market. International companies seem to have caught the wave but what about here in the land of the long white cloud?
Social networking begins when an initial set of users invite members of their own personal networks to join a site. New members repeat the process, growing the total number of members and links in the network. Sites then offer features such as viewable profiles, and other forms of online social connections.
Attracting millions of users worldwide, there are endless opportunities for companies to push their own barrel using these mediums. Featuring music clips, blogs, chat rooms, film clips and classifieds, the sites are just another way to keep in touch for teenagers all over the world.
Myspace.com boasts the most impressive stats with the number of user accounts at 100 million. (Little wonder that Rupert Murdoch thought it was worth snapping up for a cool $US580 million.) But Bebo is making good ground, earlier this year claiming to be the largest social networking site for students in the UK with 1.5 million visitors. In just over a year Bebo has grown dramatically and claims to be rapidly gaining ground in Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Socialise.co.nz is a uniquely New Zealand site where members can use animated chat rooms to meet new people at destinations such as the beach, on a harbour cruise or at a night club, or even go on private virtual outings.
Most of these sites are funded by overt advertising which cyber experts say users come to expect. A great example of an iconic company that capitalised on the interactive consumption of Myspace users was VW, whose 'Un-Pimp My Ride" ad was downloaded and forwarded by thousands of users to friends. Although it's hard to measure the ROI this kind of consumer participation in advertising provides, given the growth of online users keen to log on, the potential audience is obvious.
Another example of a corporate using the social networking environment to reach key influencers is Sprite on the Habbo Hotel website - a virtual meeting space for virtual characters created and personalised by each user. Sprite created a character called Miles Thirst, who runs a virtual bar called Club Thirst in Habbo Hotel - serving Sprite exclusively of course. Members of Habbo Hotel were invited to attend virtual parties at the bar in return for Habbo credits, which can be used to buy accessories for virtual characters. Research showed that the consumption of Sprite amongst Habbo members was 75 percent higher than that of the general population.
Myspace in particular seems to have moved beyond the classic "meet a friend" function, to offering job opportunities, and launching young artists and musos seeking their fortunes. Sites like Myspace offer a cheap, accessible way for budding artists to get some street cred - and on the international stage. So successful was local act ElemenoP's debut on Myspace - with more than 10,000 'friends' added to their list of contacts - the New Zealand music industry is now seriously looking at how to use the site to help other aspiring Kiwi bands.
The opportunities seem endless, but what is clear is that it's time that more New Zealand marketers got with the play - surely some of those tech-savvy Bebo members would fancy a good looking Kiwi-made jacket or dress.
Looking to chat? Want to make new friends?
Log on to:
www.bebo.com
www.myspace.com
www.chat.yahoo.com
www.friendsreunited.co.nz
www.socialise.co.nz |
