Teens Online - More than MySpace - Part I

The recent tragic death of two Easton students was one that also appears to have included underage drinking. This is unfortunate, but not too much of a surprise. Many of us have witnessed it before, and read about it, either in our own community or one nearby.

What was eye-opening in this incident was the way information was gathered by police and how readily students were willing to make it public via MySpace.com (click here to see the MySpace profiles under the search term "Nazareth").

MySpace is one of many social networking sites on the internet. This is the new internet, web 2.0. It is the model NewsOverCoffee is based on, utilizing individuals to deliver content.

While great freedom is given to individuals to post content, publish thoughts, and chat with one another through forums and instant messaging once they've registered for an often free account, there is a price.

The price paid for the free account is information.

The April 24, 2006 issue of Brandweek includes an article "Word Games" by Todd Wasserman that addresses word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing. WOM is an emerging marketing method rooted in the internet.

Based on Wasserman's article here is how it works (description - Wasserman's case study example):

1. A company has a product - UPN's America's Top Model
2. Company marketers find an online environment whose participants are consistent with its target audience - Alloy.com, a shopping and lifestyle site for teen girls.
3. Company indicates need - UPN wanted 500 youths who could influence others.
4. Site provides candidates - by monitoring users site chat, alloy.com provides 7000 candidates.
5. Site narrows list - by evaluating buddy lists and friends, alloy.com ranked the 7000 by 'most popular/connected'. The top 500 of these became the pool UPN wanted.
6. Site makes offer to target - The 500 teens were provided with "party kits", encouraged to invite an average of four friends to have Top Model Parties when the show aired.
7. Measurement of ROI - while the specific impact of this WOM campaign was not included, UPN was pleased with the results as the ratings for the targeted demographic increased as a result and may have saved the show.
   

Wasserman also notes that 85% of the coutnry's top 1,000 marketing firms now use some form of WOM marketing and this is the reason why social networking sites like Alloy.com and MySpace.com are being purchased for such high prices (MySpace.com sold to News Corp. for $580 million last year).

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association has a draft Code of Ethics, which is a good first step, but not all marketers belong to the association and even those that do are not obligated to follow it, nor are their penalities if they do not.

Coming Soon:

• Teens Online - More than MySpace - Part II: Featuring the ethical questions that arise as a result of WOM campaigns like the UPN case study and parental control/notification.
  
• Teens Online - More than MySpace - Part III: Where Teens Go Online. Where They'll Go Next. Learn some of the sites being used and where to find the next one.
  

Posted by Ross Nunamaker for NewsOverCoffee, Thursday, April 27, 2006