Adding Brands As Friends Edit
Marketing On SNS

Haven’t you always wanted to be friends with Chanel? What about Sony? Obviously you’ve always wanted to call Ford your best friend. The internet has a lot of bizarre attributes, and one of the newest online fads is all about adding brands to your buddy lists on social networking sites (SNS).

“The Generation Y audience is more likely to ‘friend’ their favorite brands than adult users of social networking sites,” PRMinds reports. “One third of Gen Y users are interested in viewing marketer’s profiles, whereas almost half of adult users say that they would be interested in viewing a marketer’s profile.”

“That said, users who do befriend a brand do so simply because they have a particular affinity or loyalty to a specific brand. For instance, the movie, X-Men: The Last Stand, befriended more than 2 million users on MySpace.”

So how do you get your brand marketed on SNS sites?

The key is to “inspire communication or action to the end-user.” Brands that evoke emotion, like passion or excitement, do a lot better. 

If you’re simply not able to arouse any emotional response, a little bribery could be in order. Incentives like contest prizes or awards is one way to get people to engage with your brand. Also, make sure to cater to the specific audiences of each SNS. “Pontiac has a Pontiac Underground site on Yahoo!, but on MySpace, Pontiac caters to a younger audience with its ‘Friends with Benefits’ campaign.”