Social Media- Info Overload!

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/