The Television Talks Back

How Traditional Advertisers are Using Social Networks to Promote Growth

According to comScore via The Washington Post article "New Trends In Online Traffic," MySpace ranked number 10 of all U.S. sites, generating over 37 million visitors in March of 2006. Thirty-seven million visitors from across the globe of all ages and nationalities, inviting friends to view their site, posting pictures, sharing video and navigating through the social networks expanse of profiles. Traditional advertisers are skipping banner ads and moving straight to join in the ranks with their viewers--and their viewers are talking back.

Speed Channel continues to build relationships with their loyal fans of shows such as Unique Whips, Pinks and Build or Bust through customized MySpace pages. Viewers can visit the page to check out television schedules, join groups, view episode clips and post comments about the show. Comments include "Your show is awesome! I'm so inspired at what you have accomplished.", "Thanks for the add. Watch your show every week. Keep it UNIQUE!!!" and "Don't even know if i'll get a reply to this but hey it's worth a shot. When will you guys be headed back to the Maryland area??? I live in Va. and I would really like to make it out to a taping so whenever you're anywhere near me I would deff. like to make it out just wondering what kind of time frame i'm looking at....great show I can't live w/o it...make it an hour long tho haha thtd b awesome."

Much like corporate blogging, MySpace gives marketers the ability to create a personal connection with consumers outside the realm of mass marketing. Profiles and URLs are free, page maintenance is minimal and the site will work for itself. Add consumers as friends, upload videos of new products, post pictures and join related groups and communities. ComScore reports over a 318% increase in user participation for MySpace from this time last year, with no signs of slowing. Marketers from all industries should grab the Web URL before it's gone and begin putting a personal voice to corporate branding.