> MEDIAWATCH A
couple of years ago, the leading Irish and interna- tional portals took all the top spots in Irish website rankings and talk was merely of the growing inter- est amongst younger audiences in social sites and social networks. Fast-forward to 2010 and every one of the top 10 sites in the country are now social media-related. Looking at which sites garner the most amount of time spent online only serves to underline the importance of social media websites and, in particular, social net- works in the Irish market. Facebook is now, by far, the largest social networking site in the Irish market, growing by a huge 65pc this year alone and claiming an audience of over 1.4 million unique users. In terms of audience saturation, Facebook can claim to reach 86pc of all 15–24-year- olds in the country who are online and 76pc of 25–44 year olds. One of its main growth audiences, however, is at the older end of the scale and Facebook is now reaching 160,000 unique users aged 55+ or 62pc of the demographic online. Earlier this year, Facebook eclipsed Google in the US for the first time, with more time spent on Facebook in August than on the search behemoth. Even more worrying for Google is the revelation that Facebook was the third largest video sharing site in the US in August and is now challenging the Google-owned YouTube. In short, Facebook is beginning to distinctly show its colours, not just as a social media channel, but as a worthy rival to Google’s dom- inance of the internet space. Measured against the might of Facebook, the growth of Twitter has been less impressive in the Irish market, with a 24pc year-on- year increase at the end of August. According to Comscore, there are now 189,000 Twitter users in the Irish market. And while the number of tweets posted continues to grow at a huge pace, sug- gesting strong loyal usage, data from the US suggests that Twitter growth may be slowing. As has been widely reported, Bebo and MySpace have lost sig- nificant audiences in the past 12 months and that pattern has been replicated in the Irish market.
Focus on the money
Not only has Facebook continued to display impressive growth in terms of audiences, but the company has also made significant inroads into monetising the site. One of the biggest monetary suc-
in association with
cesses has been the growth in advertiser usage of the Facebook equivalent to Google Adwords. With its superior audience and interest-based targeting potential, these adverts deliver significant value for money and are now typically bought by advertisers in tan- dem with a Google Adwords campaign, given that both models operate on a cost-per-click basis. And by using copy and audi- ence management tools such as One Media Manager, Facebook ads can be made even more effective. Facebook has also recently launched Facebook Deals, an advertising service that allows offers to be pushed towards users who check in to specific locations via Places, Facebook’s alterna- tive to Foursquare. These initiatives not only attract new users, but also offer advertisers more effective ways to reach key targeted consumer groups within Facebook. The real power of social networks, and in particular Facebook, lies not in the technology and the new advertising formats offered up to advertisers, but in a true understanding of the motivations behind usage patterns within social networks and how brands can create value and resonance within these communities. Today, users engage with social networks for a whole host of activities such as uploading photos or videos, promoting specific causes and playing games, rather than the more ‘traditional’ pursuits of finding and communicating with friends. For example, 10pc of Facebook fans use the site to play Farmville. In this changing marketplace, understanding how to plan, grow, utilise and measure the success of this marketing channel remains as key a challenge today as it was 12 months ago. What has also become increasingly clear over time is that as well as joining social networks in increasing numbers, and using these networks for a host of different reasons, users also want to inter- act with brands in social spaces and, in many cases, expect to be able to do so. Far from rejecting brand presence, users are now starting to welcome brands into their Facebook feeds, provided those brands can add value to the conversations. ‘The socialisation of brands’, an international social media
research initiative from Universal McCann, which includes data for Ireland, indicates that not only do users want to interact with brands on social networks, but they are moving away from using official brand websites as a result. In its most recent research wave, Universal McCann found that visits to official websites had dropped from almost 85pc in 2008 to under 75pc by 2010 and
Using print media to advertise its Facebook page helped Captain Morgan to build up a following initially. It now has more than 75,000 ‘likes’ on the social network
46 Marketing Age Volume 4 Issue 4 2010
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76