Social networking marketing 'is a risk'
Nov 17 2008
Using direct marketing through social networking sites is a risk as it cannot be controlled in the same way as other forms of marketing, according to an expert.
Mike Hare, research director at DataTalk Research Limited, a statistical consultancy group, says the potential for negative publicity is equal to that of positive promotion.
He states that as the entire audience can communicate with each other, a negative message can be spread very quickly among individuals, faster than the firm can remedy it.
'No other media gives the target audience that potential,' Hare adds.
'Every other medium you can choose to use as a marketing channel you can virtually control the positioning of adverts in print media, the timing of adverts on broadcast media [and] ... the date mail is dropped,' Hare states.
He adds that there have been some very successful examples of using social networking sites, but there have also been some calamitous ones.
A recent report from Nielsen Online found social networking and blogging sites have seen the biggest increase in use of all internet sites, seeing a rise of 1.3 million minutes in the last year.