Too much of a good thing is sometimes not such a good idea
when it comes to social marketing. I think that companies need to focus on
finding a balance between customization and maintaining the integrity of the
brand. In my opinion adjusting a message needs to be subtle, additionally, bombarding
an audience with messages can deter attention because after a certain point the
client goes into info overload.
“Nearly a third of social networkers
say they are fed up with the constant requests to join groups and try new
applications, according to research by the Internet Advertising Bureau in the
U.K. That means marketers will need to work harder and keep innovating if they
want to harness the consumer power of social networks and persuade people to
join their sponsored sites or pages." (incontextmultimedia.com)
"When asked “What do you dislike
about social networks?” by far the highest response, at 31%, was that there are
too many invites to install applications, followed by 16% who said “when
advertising isn’t relevant to me.” Slightly more than 5% complained about
messages from brands and another 5% actually lamented the addictiveness of
social networks. About 12% said they had no complaints. The research showed
that 7% of respondents sign up to find out about brands.” (incontextmultimedia.com)
Perhaps the solutions lays in use of transactive content,
where a customer is introduced to a message through combination of traditional
content, such as articles and product descriptions, with dynamic information
culled from product databases, tailored to each user. (Laudon 2010) The reason
why I think this is a good solution, if executed correctly, is that the
marketer can gradually introduce a message and build brand awareness while
already having a pretty good sense of the viewer’s preferences. Instead of blatantly
bombarding arbitrary messages to the viewers, transitive content provides a
seamless experience between content and interactivity. (Laudon 2010) It creates a sense of value to the user- since
the content is generated based on user preferences- the user is more likely to
have a need/interest in the message.
Laudon, T. (2011). e-commerce: business. technology.
society. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
“Social Media Message
Overload” (May 2009) Retrieved from http://blog.incontextmultimedia.com/2009/05/social-media-message-overload/
