Social networking works its way into marketing

The reliance of established and prominent newspapers upon companies like Pluck was a surprise to listeners.

The discussion led by Amy Crow (of Pluck) relied heavily on slides, and effectively presented the importance of the emergence of marketing in popular Web sites and Web logs.

"(The discussion) was really informative — I'm not a blogger, but it is surprising to realize how important blogging is to big publications like USA Today," said Matthew Slabaugh, advertising senior.

Pluck's Web site states the company "powers social media for publishers and brands."

Crow stressed the importance of the vast blogosphere and its lifeblood — staying current.
"Posting frequently lets the author's personality shine through," she said.

Pluck's BlogBurst, which goes for approximately $6,000, was presented as a means of staying current, and as a service for news and other social outlets. The service was described as the largest moderated blog site, free of hate speech. BlogBurst collects and displays blog postings and was described as a wire service for media and as a way to syndicate bloggers' work.

Beyond Pluck's services, Crow described a wildly successful marketing campaign for a certain summer blockbuster to the thirty-strong crowd that featured at least four faculty members.

Lori Bergen, Bruce Smith, Laurie Fluker, Cindy Royal and others listened as Crow described The Simpsons Movie's campaign.
"I haven't seen a marketing campaign like The Simpsons Movie," she said.
According to Crow, USA Today became a part of the contest, and effectively used social networking as a means to a successful marketing campaign.

Laura Payne, advertising senior, was impressed with Crow's presentation and the effectiveness of Pluck's services.
"The amount of people (employed) by the company and the huge amount of clients like USA Today (were impressive)," Payne said.

Aside from blogs, Crow spoke about the role of social networking Web sites, namely Facebook.
"Marketers are getting it — Facebook offers some very rich advertising methods," she said.

The presentation was definitely interesting to me because I'm a tech geek, of sorts. While my passion for all things electronic has certainly waned in the past couple of years, it was exciting for me to hear about the role of social networking Web sites in advertising and marketing in general. With the advent of all of these new technologies, more jobs are created. The people who will do those jobs are my generation and younger.

Photos courtesy of Cindy Royal