subject: Combining Social Media And Mobile Marketing For Advertising Success [print this page] The last decade has seen a revolution with the emergence of social networking services. These services facilitate the creation of online communities through which people can interact. Some of the most well known examples of social networking services include Facebook, Bebo and Twitter and as these services have rapidly incorporated mobile technology, they present an array of exciting marketing opportunities to businesses.
Social Networking sites go right back to the early days of the internet. Through chat rooms and other rudimentary online communities users could interact with others; often by linking in email addresses. These online forums quickly evolved however and it wasn't long before the first social networking services appeared allowing users to build their own sophisticated online communities with which they could interact in a diverse range of ways. Presently, largest of these services is Facebook which has over 500 million users. 100 million of which have access on their mobile phones.
It is the introduction of mobile phones as a social networking tool that has really new opened doors for advertisers. Recently, Red Bull utilised mobile-based social networking in the promotion of its recent New York air race. Using Whrrl, a social networking service that utilises location data, the Red Bull Society was created which kept people who signed up informed about ticket deals, drinks specials and other offers that relate to their physical location. The enthusiastic response this innovative marketing campaign received is a clear indication that location data will be a key factor in future social media-based marketing.
With social networking heavyweights starting to show interest in location based services, the use of social networking as a marketing tool will continue to be refined.
Giants such as Facebook have started to integrate location-based technology into their platforms and considering their reach (Facebook being the largest social network has 500 million users of which over 100 million have mobile access) and the understanding of a person's preferences that location data provides, the opportunities will certainly be there for advertisers to refine their advertising and run far more effective marketing campaigns.
