Masterclass: The Revolution Masterclass on social networking sites

of the biggest and most successful online social networks, is now one
of the most visited sites, with more than 105 million users worldwide
(AC Nielsen).

The concept of online social networking began to gain momentum in 2002,
with the advent of a web site called Friendster. There are now more
than 200 social networking sites, with new networks or communities
appearing all the time. The most basic ones offer features such as
viewable profiles, the ability to form new links through 'introduction
services' and other forms of online social connections.

These networks can be organised around business, as in the case of
LinkedIn, or niches such as the arts, music and cars. Some, like
MySpace, Facebook and Faceparty, combine face-to-face events and
networking with online elements. MySpace, for example, builds on
independent music and party scenes, while Facebook mirrors a college
community.

VIRTUAL LIFE

Other social networking web sites are built around members interacting
and sharing a specific type of content, such as photo-sharing site
Flickr and YouTube, which lets users post and share videos. There are
also virtual online communities, such as Habbo Hotel and Second Life,
where users create an avatar (a virtual version of themselves) through
which they live a virtual life. Second Life has seen huge growth in the
past few years; over 1.6 million users created an avatar by the end of
last year, up from 70,000 members in 2005.

So, why should brands care about social networks? The simple answer is
that more people are spending more time on these sites. Recent research
from the European Interactive Advertisers Association (EIAA) revealed
that a quarter of UK users visit social networking sites and 32 per
cent visit one at least once a month. And, where the audience goes, the
advertiser will always try to follow.

But, it's not that simple. Patrick Griffith, planning director, at
Agency Republic, believes brands are more or less excluded from these
environments. "You're talking about conversations between groups of
friends and in those conversations a brand has no right to be there,
unless the conversation is already about that brand."

Griffith argues that brands need to earn the right to be there. "What
you need to do in a social environment is to make sure you, as a brand,
are enriching the environment by giving people interesting things to
talk about or pass around." Agency Republic describes this as 'social
currency', which brands can create for people to pass around.

But, do people want to be interrupted by brands when they're trying to
chat with their mates? A profile page on a social network is much more
personal than a portal home page where people expect to see
advertising. Jamie Kantrowitz, senior VP of marketing and content at
MySpace.com in Europe, points out that people are used to advertising
in their lives.

UNIQUE THINGS

"One point I find myself making a lot is that people don't reject
brands. There are a lot of things that people love about brands -
that's what consumerism is. It doesn't necessarily mean they don't want
it in their social network, but it's all about how you present the
brand," she says.

Kantrowitz says one of the unique things about the audiences of social
sites such as MySpace is that they have shown that, given the right
tools, they will express themselves creatively and want to build their
own identities online. "You can almost think of a social networking
profile as someone's bedroom or apartment," she says.

"When you walk into someone's house you get a very strong sense of who
they are by the books the have, the type of shoes they wear and the
colour of their walls. The generation who have grown up with social
networking have really got used to sharing their lives online. Their
profiles become a characterisation of who they are, down to what kind
of brands they interact with."

There are various options available to brands that want to include
social networking in their marketing plans. The most basic is to simply
advertise on these sites using standard banner ads. This automatically
puts the brand in front of the millions of consumers who use social
networking web sites. While this may provide reach and help to raise
brand awareness in the same way as advertising on MSN or Yahoo,
Griffith believes this isn't the best use of the channel.

"It probably works out cheaper than buying posters, but if your brand
is trying to engage people in more valuable conversations and get them
doing new things, I don't think you are ever going to get that as an
outcome from banners," he explains. "I think you are missing a trick if
you use the standard advertising approach. What you are getting is one
per cent of people's attention when you could get 100 per cent."

People spend hours on these sites talking to their friends, so, rather
than advertising to them and trying to lure them away from an
environment they are clearly comfortable in, Griffith advises brands to
try to join in and make the conversations already taking place more
fun.

MySpace lets brands create their own profile to create communities
around. But, obviously, the brand has to make a pretty compelling
proposition to get users to visit the page and, even better, link to it
or forward it to a friend. It is a user-controlled environment and
brands can't force people to interact.

"We build these brand communities based around what the brand is trying
to achieve, their brand ethos, and what they are marketing," explains
Kantrowitz.

Brands can encourage consumers to interact with their page by providing
them with tools to make their MySpace page better, the ability to
create their own content around the brand, and by offering incentives
such as exclusive content in the case of entertainment firms such as
TV, film and music brands, or competitions.

Mike Dowuona, digital media manager at EMI's Angel Music Group, says it
is important to make sure your brand profile doesn't come across as
pushy or sales-focused. If a brand profile page just looks like a
catalogue and nothing else, there is no real value for the user. Brands
need to understand the audience and tap into what people are using the
site for - engage them rather than pushing a product.

AN AFFINITY

"People have much more of an affinity with things they discover there.
Much of the music on these web sites is about discovery. This allows
people to feel they have discovered something themselves, rather than
being broadcasted to, and it enables them to take some ownership in the
acts and the content," adds Dowuona.

It is also important to remember how seriously people view these web
sites, particularly the virtual online worlds such as Habbo Hotel and
Second Life, where members build business empires and can make real
money. And, brands need to respect that. For example, a former
Chinese-language tutor, recently profiled in the UK press, has built up
a massive property empire in Second Life, amassing a virtual fortune,
but as the game's Linden dollars are exchangeable into real US dollars
in online currency exchanges, she could potentially be worth a million
US dollars in real life.

"It surprises me how seriously people take these sites and how
passionate they are about their lives in these virtual worlds. They
build businesses and hold different identities. One of the guys on
Habbo is a rock star - he's a god - and he gets mobbed when he goes in
there. But, you meet him in real life and he's a very average guy who
loves the internet. It's quite difficult to get your head around," says
Dowuona.

Record labels have been among the most progressive in realising the
marketing potential of social networking sites, with many artists and
groups creating profiles on the likes of MySpace. Dowuona recently
teamed with Habbo Hotel to launch boy band 365 - the first time a band
has been launched on the virtual network.

"The band made 2,000 friends in just two hours. People were really
interested to talk to them, and the boys themselves really embraced it,
which I think is key. It's an ongoing commitment for us and the
challenge is to come up with new and interesting ideas to keep that
relationship relevant," he adds.

Angel is looking at the idea of enlisting fans and creating virtual
street teams to send out into the world of Habbo to do fly-postering.
"There are loads of things we are discussing at the moment to push the
concept forward and mirror what we do to promote a band in the real
world," says Dowuona.

Yet, he admits it is easier to see how the music industry can tap into
MySpace, largely because it has content it can offer to users. The same
goes for films and other entertainment brands, as well as certain youth
or 'cool' brands with which people are quite happy to interact.

For example, to push the launch of Sasha Baron Cohen's Borat film,
activity included creating a Borat profile on Faceparty. It isn't so
easy, however, to see how this could work for brands in, say, the
financial or FMCG sector. The crucial thing to remember is that, just
because you can have a brand presence on social networks, it doesn't
mean you should try to do something. And it has to add value for users,
even if it simply entertains.

So, for example, Agency Republic has developed and managed activity for
Radio 1, which revolves around new pick-and-mix web service
'Musicubes'. Users choose the genre of music around which they can
create a Musicube. This allows them to access the latest editions of
Radio 1 shows featuring that sort of content. These 'cubes' can be
added to a MySpace profile, enabling users to represent their musical
taste on their web space while encouraging trial of Radio 1 online.

VIRAL ELEMENT

Within days of launch, more than 10,000 Musicube towers had been built
and inserted into MySpace profiles and blogs, receiving more than
300,000 views. Every tower features a 'get your own' link, giving the
campaign a viral element and encouraging people to 'spread the
word'.

"It's a great example of a piece of work that, rather than trying to
advertise to people in MySpace and tell people what to think about
Radio 1, has its own value and life, so people pass it around and it
becomes part of MySpace. It lives on the user's page as a piece of
content and makes their page look better and tells other people what
music you are into." explains Griffiths.

MySpace's Kantrowitz says a complete range of brands, including FMCGs,
can have a presence on the network. She cites examples from the US,
including Axe (Lynx in the UK) and Wendy's Hamburgers. Axe created
profiles for two people, clearly supported by the Axe brand, which was
based on the idea of mating. The two guys went on a road trip in search
of their perfect mate, and the MySpace profiles included details of the
trip and downloadable content. Wendy's, which is famous for its square
hamburgers, created a profile for an animated, square character. "It
proved to be incredible - there were over 100,000 people in the Wendy's
community on MySpace," says Kantrowitz.

One of the great things about social networks is that brands can see
immediately whether people are interested by the number of people who
link to the profile and become a friend. "Looking at the number of
friends gives you a rough idea of the success of the campaign, says
Griffith.

Dowuona says a better indicator for music campaigns is the number of
friends who migrate to the artist's database. "That way you know
they're not there just to increase their own number of friends, but
because they've seen what the act is about, heard the music and want to
know more," he says. He adds that if traffic to the profile page is
constant, it's another good sign that the page is successful because it
shows people are returning.

However, it is not quite so easy to track the ROI of social networking
campaigns. For example, finding out the number of friends who have
linked to a film profile on MySpace doesn't tell you how many people
have gone to the cinema to watch the film as a result of the activity.
Griffith says you could probably measure this quite easily by
canvassing opinions at a screening, but the mere fact that someone has
chosen to interact with a brand is valuable in itself and shouldn't be
underestimated.

MASTERCLASS PANEL

Mike Dowuona is digital media manager at EMI's Angel Music Group record
label. He works closely with all Angel artists to develop bespoke web
and mobile campaigns. He has played an integral role in enabling cross-
creativity and new digital developments.

Patrick Griffith has been planning director at Agency Republic for two
years, developing work for brands such as O2, BBC, Nokia, MTV, Diageo
and Unilever. Prior to that he was at digital media agency i-level,
where he ran the BT account, among others.

Jamie Kantrowitz is senior VP of marketing and content at MySpace.com
in Europe. She relocated to London from the Los Angeles HQ last year.
Her role involves developing strategic and media partnerships, events
and overseeing brand and content acquisitions.

TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX PUSHES 'BORAT' FILM ON FACEPARTY

As part of the marketing activity for Borat, the recently released
movie featuring comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as a Kazahk reporter,
Twentieth Century Fox ran a campaign on social networking site
Faceparty.

The aim of the campaign, which was planned by Starcom MediaVest, was to
raise awareness of the release of Borat - The Movie, and drive traffic
to the official Borat site in the run-up to the film's launch.

The deal with Faceparty included a Borat home page takeover for two
days. This included title-bar sponsorship at the top of the home page,
a banner and a video MPU featuring clips from the film.

A Borat-sponsored monthly newsletter, written as though if was from the
character Borat, was also sent to Faceparty members. It aimed to
encourage people to click through to an official Borat profile, created
on Faceparty as part of the campaign.

Matt Nash, commercial director at Faceparty, says this was one of the
first times that the site had run a profile of a movie character,
rather than a film or brand profile. "It is advertising, but in such a
way that people can enjoy it, and it gives you an insight into the
character before you go and see the film," says Nash.

The Borat profile was created as though Borat himself were a member of
Faceparty. It resembled a regular user profile, with pictures of Borat
and personal information on him.

Users could add the Borat profile to their buddy list, in the same way
as they could add other members of the community.

The ads ran for four days on the web site, but the profile is still
live. The home page banner received a click-through rate of 0.2 per
cent, and the home page MPU a click-through rate of 0.3 per cent; both
well above the industry average of 0.1 per cent.

The newsletter linked through to the Borat web site and generated
42,000 click-throughs in three days.

The Borat profile received more than 100,000 visits in just 11
days.

TOP TIPS ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

1. Try to think beyond traditional banner ads. While they can be
effective and reach a wide audience, banners are not the most effective
way of using social networking sites.

2. Decide what your objective is and what you want to achieve. Are you
trying to create a buzz, or do you want to connect with your audience
on a deeper level and change the way they perceive your brand?

3. Understand your audience. Find out what they are using these web
sites for and try to come up with a way of adding value to what they
are already doing.

4. Make sure you are completely open and honest. If you are creating a
profile on a social site such as MySpace, make sure the page is
associated with your brand. Never try to dupe users - it could have a
negative impact on your brand.

5. Members of social networking sites want to express themselves. Give
them tools or content they can add to their own profile page or pass on
to friends.

6. Pick one or two social networking sites that fit your target
audience. It can be difficult to maintain if you try to have a presence
on every single network.

7. Make sure you update content regularly to keep people engaged. Don't
just create a page and leave it or people won't have a reason to come
back.

8. Don't be too sales-focused or pushy. This is a user-controlled
environment and users won't be impressed.

9. How will you measure success? Number of friends and traffic are good
measures, but track users through other calls-to-action.

CHECKLIST

Questions that should be considered when planning a social networking
campaign

- Have you considered what you want to achieve?

- Have you chosen a social network with an audience that fits your
target demographic?

- Have you given people a reason to visit your brand profile?

- Are you offering anything of value, like content or tools to help
users create their own content?

- Is your presence/profile clearly branded? Don't fool people into
thinking you are another user.

- Have you included an incentive to encourage users to share or pass on
your profile/content to their friends?

- How are you going to measure the success of your campaign?

- Is your social networking campaign integrated with the rest of your
marketing activity?

- Do you have a long-term plan for your brand profile? If you don't
plan to keep updating it, how long do you want to leave it up for?