A Little More About My BBJ Quote

I was quoted in Friday’s Baltimore Business Journal in an article called “Blog and Pony Show“. The article is essentially about the money, or lack thereof, that people can expect to make from blogging. As a planner and buyer of interactive media, I’m approached regularly by sites with advertising opportunities and have to evaluate whether they are the right places for our clients to be advertising.

I wanted to expand upon the BBJ quote and explain a little more of my thoughts on advertising on blogs and in social media. Here’s the quote:

“It pushes the brand even further and gets people to talk about it amongst themselves,” said Chris Walbert, digital media manager for Media Works Ltd. in Owings Mills. “That’s the powerful thing about blogs and social networks.”

First, to state the obvious, just because you advertise on a blog or social network doesn’t mean people will care or talk about your brand or product. The fact that blogs and networks are innately social environments, though, does give people the opportunity to talk about your brand or product within the site.

The example I used to make this point was a campaign we did for the Kennedy Krieger Institute and the IAN Project. For this campaign the client wanted to reach parents of children with autism and drive them to the IAN Project site to become involved with this project. While researching I found that a thriving community of moms with autistic children already existed at CafeMom.com, and that the site’s members were already talking about the IAN Project and how great it was.

In addition to running banner ads, we sponsored the most popular autism-related groups, included poll questions, and answered any questions the Cafe Mom community had about the IAN Project. Not only could the interested moms click on banners for more information, but they could ask questions directly to their friends and community members who already had experience with the IAN Project.

Yes, the click through rate for this campaign was much higher than average, but there was something more important that happened. There was an outpouring of thanks and support from these moms to the IAN Project for sponsoring their groups and their community. Advocates often talk about the emotional connection that brands can build by using social media. This is an instance where I saw that to be true.

I don’t advocate using or advertising in social media just for the sake of doing it, or because it’s the thing to do these days. However, for the right brands and organizations, social media really does provide an environment that you can’t find anywhere else. For some clients, blogs and social media will not be the right place to be, but they are at least worth a look. You might find one that is the perfect fit.