It’s Social Me-too time

All right, we get it—MySpace is like, so hot right now. (Forget the fact that anyone even remotely ahead of the trendiness curve had a profile years ago, and just go with it. GO WITH IT.) According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s latest report, “55% of all online American youngsters between the ages of 12 and 17 have created a profile on MySpace, Facebook, Xanga or another social networking site.” (Hello captive audience, may I sell you something?)

And now corporate America wants in on the game. Badly. Conde Net started their social network test drive in December; Disney is supposedly unveiling their version (unabashedly labeled a “MySpace Knockoff” in the company’s own press release) today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas; according to Marketing Vox and Sab Kanaujia, a VP at NBC's Digital Media, NBC is looking to go social by building a platform and integrating it with the company's existing online properties. In fact, trend analysis aggregator eMarketer has predicted worldwide advertising spend on social networks will more than double this year.

Now if done properly (read: NOT hastily), a well-constructed and transparent corporate social network can be used to help companies know what end-users really think of, and want from, them. But, as Ad Age’s Scott Donaton pointed out so wonderfully in this morning’s editorial:

“…too many of these sponsored viral-video (and fake-blog and social-networking) thingies really, really suck, and there's a reason for that: They are not the end result of an actual idea or strategy but are born of a desperate desire to do something, anything, in the new-media space.

On the surface, this isn't surprising. Most of everything sucks, from films to books to TV shows to, of course, ads. Which is why those that don't tend to stand out.”

A pessimist after my own heart.

And the takeaway…
Don’t just jump on board because all the cool kids are doing it. People can smell a poser from 10 miles away. Remember what your mother said: If everyone jumped off of the Empire State Building, would you?

[Shameless self-promotion:
- But, ummm… my boss really wants me on top of this whole social networking thing. Can you help me?
- No problem, Jimmy. Just join ABM for “Digital Velocity: Top, Bottom and Front Line Best Practices for Growth,” a two-day intensive, high level conference, March 28-29, 2007 at the Westin Times Square, to find out everything you need to know.
...And all the cool kids will be there.]

posted by Sara Sheadel