Marketing Brands in Social Media

Marketing brands in social media is not as difficult as it might seem. To some marketers, it may seem like a big headache and not worth pursuing. But when you consider the state of mainstream marketing and advertising, and where most of the buyers are spending their time, marketing brands via social media channels makes a lot of sense.

Consider these random facts before we go on:

• Generation Y now outnumbers Baby Boomers, 81 million to 78 million
• Gen Y is 26% of the population, and their spending power is more than $200 billion.
• They influence another $300 - $400 billion in family spending.
• 96% of Gen Y is on a social network of some kind.
• 83% of American adults own cell phones; 42% of that number owns smartphones.

It seems that Gen Y — people born between 1977 and 1994 — were born with cell phones in their hands. They use new technology like smartphones, they listen to music on iPods, iPhones, and now music streaming sites like Spotify. They watch videos online on YouTube and Hulu, rather than watching TV. The TV they do watch is often recorded so they can fast forward through commercials. They don't use the Yellow Pages, they use Google. And the advertising they do see, they tend to ignore or downplay as unimportant or overly commercialized.

This makes marketing brands rather difficult. You can't reach them with traditional advertising. They don't watch TV as often, and if they do, they fast forward through commercials. They don't listen to commercial radio, and if they do they ignore the commercials. They don't consume print media, getting their news online and via their smartphones.

Basically, marketing brands to Generation Y is becoming more difficult, traditional marketing is becoming less cost effective, and requires marketers to go to their customers, rather than making customers come to them.

Twenty years ago, marketers could put all their money into TV and radio. There were only a few stations and channels, and people still read paper publications. Marketing brands was easy because people accepted advertising.

But now marketing brands in social media is the wave of the future, but it's not going to be easy. Not only does social media let people ignore advertising — you can download plugins to a web browser that block nearly all ads from websites — but people are using social media to escape advertising.

So marketing brands have taken on a whole new focus, trying new strategies that have never been tried before. They're exploring different options, different channels, and a whole new way of thinking.

Big brands are advertising on YouTube and Hulu. They're sponsoring special events, like concerts and competitions, that reach Generation Y without ever getting into any mainstream or print outlets.  They're trying special giveaways that give digital media content as prizes, rather than store gift cards or merchandise.

Marketing brands is challenging, but not impossible. Social media is going to be the wave of the future when it comes to marketing brands.