The whisperers and marketers of social media platforms: Big businesses listen to end users

Why do we get those advertisements on Facebook and MySpace? How do marketers and public relations professionals know our buying and donation preferences when developing messages to us on these platforms designed for discussion with friends and peers?

The answer is quite interesting for discussion and simple for marketing and public relations professionals that develop target specific messages based on user interests and opinions.



Users of products and services use these platforms to discuss overall performance and satisfaction offered by businesses. Internet social media platforms are becoming the new consumer guide to products with the idea people with similar interests share the same kind of buying habits.

How do these businesses target our friends?

To put it simply, we all have established friendships based on common interests and professional goals. Facebook and MySpace has developed marketing applications for companies and organizations to reach audiences based on these mutual connections
(Facebook advertising and MySpace advertising)

The pricing for these social media marketing activities are relatively inexpensive for corporations and organizations using social media to reach potential consumers. This is compare to traditional advertising and marketing endeavors used by traditional media outlets such as network prime time advertising.

How do businesses monitor so many social media sites?

I had to ask myself this question. After research, it does not take long to realize marketing and public relations professionals are using sophisticated social media software to monitor these sites and what end users are saying about products and services of the companies they represent.



Companies and organizations can utilize these software programs to determine overall impressions of messages received by target audiences as well as gauge success of campaigns.

These monitoring programs give these professionals the ability to modify and change messages based on user’s preferences and common interests in these social network communities.
Most online communities allow members to create a personal profile. A profile allows each user to post their basic information so that others within the online social network can learn more about them.

This works particularly well for you as it means businesses and organizations can easily collect basic data on you. It is a quick and cost-effective way to better understand customers.

Is your profile interesting to marketers?

It is the end users interests to others as well as others interested to the end user that attracts public relations and marketing professionals. It is not just the blogs and conversations now that attract users to social platform Internet sites.

Now, users can share pictures as well as video images to spark interest and conversations among these social network groups. Some platforms integrate these technologies to accommodate the user experience to these sites.

With the development of these integrated elements, there have been a spawn of other social sites to cater to users, who only express thoughts through a combination of visual and audio elements Flickr, Youtube, and Stickam a few to mention.

The interesting element about Stickam allows users to stream live video to other users in order to stimulate discussion about what they have seen and heard from other end users.

Marketing and public relations professionals are capitalizing on these sites to establish brand recognition as well as testing the overall performance of target specific messaging.

The whispers or now the spokespeople of businesses

In final thought, businesses are starting to realize brand recognition comes from the perceptions of the consumer of the products or services offered. Internet social communities and networks comprised of “friends” with similar interests and thoughts are dictating success for businesses.

Traditional marketing and public relations models are being scientifically as well as mathematical to show how messages are perceived by targeted mass audiences. In the past, these professionals used traditional media outlets to target these individuals.

Success was not easily determined by such methods. Now, messages can be gauged based on user interaction with products in their forums of discussion. Performance and value are no longer abstract ideas for these professionals. These professionals now have concrete data to show the return on investment on developing these messages.