Next Up -- Social Media Marketing

No question social media experienced a major shift, or rather exploded, in 2007. Social media marketing requires new ways of thinking about influencing consumers on their terms, on their turf. And it may have far longer-term impact for advertisers than either brand or direct marketing to date. Social networks, blogs, peer reviews, microblogs, virtual worlds, wikis, prediction markets, and social advertising all combine to make stand-alone websites seem like old-school thinking in a new brand world.

Let’s look first at social networks, particularly with one brand close to our hearts for the matter at hand.

Facebook App / SunChips

This is a great example of a brand playing on the turf of its users and staying true to the brand and its promise to its consumers. But does it really take advantage of the social network effectively?

The app doesn’t operate much differently than it would if it lived on the brand website alone. It takes the user through a series of questions asking what action the user is taking on a number of fronts to help the environment. At the end of the questions, the user can see the total responses tallied by gender, state and their friends (if they’ve been motivated to share the app). Mildly interesting maybe, but what’s the pay-off to the user? Is there enough here to keep someone engaged and bring a real viral component to this? The app seems to not have quite tipped the entertainment scales, and so will have a harder time seeding viral activity. But doing so is only a hair breadth’s away.

To become far more engaging, why not introduce some friendly competition that would dial up the motivation to share the app?

Why not have users actually rate their friends on environmental action?

Have users vote on how much those in their network really walk the environmental talk – similar to the wildly successful ‘Compare People’ app? (Who among your friends are going to save the planet, the polar bears and the babies still to be born and who is going to help drive it further into the waste heap of landfill, carbon-emitting, ozone-depleting, tsunami-raging death?)

Or have users put their friends to an eco-challenge? Messages could be sent to friends.
“Natalie accuses you of environmental fraud -- looks like you’d rather hail a cab than walk 2 blocks to the club! Care to take her challenge?”

Now maybe that’s a little harsh and could be toned down for the brand voice, but you get the idea. There are lots of ways this could play out given creative and development teams a week to brainstorm and hash it out. The idea is to dial up the motivation by combining the entertainment factor of competition or outing friends at a time when focus on environmental issues has reached critical mass - and when being environmentally aware has social currency.

A totally different approach would be stay on the pure altruism path and dial that up. Right now, the only motivation to share this app is a nice altruistic notion to have your friends look at their behavior. Like I said, it’s nice, but not compelling. So take the altruism further. Create an environmental fund like the Dove Self Esteem Fund, which has its own presence on Facebook with a DONATE button. SunChips could use their Facebook app to raise money that could be given to any number of environmental non-profits. SunChips could double any individual’s donation (and of course this could be insured as any promotion is to limit liability). But I think the entertainment factor may win out in the end for viral activity – sadly, altruism isn’t always our number-one motivator.

Great start SunChips and kudos for leaping into social media. Now perhaps there are more ways for the brand to truly leverage the inherent social premise of Facebook and become more actively engaged -- and experience far greater viral value.