Marketing the Social Way

This is probably one of the most exciting times in history to be in the direct marketing industry.

Just think about the social networks you've joined and may very well be addicted to—Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo and many others have become mainstream marketing channels where companies and media giants court consumer engagement.

With so much interest for marketing opportunities, the next logical progression is for direct marketers to harness the vast amount of data that these social networks contain.

Consider that everyone who is on social networks wants everyone else to know as much about them as possible. The self-reported data individuals provide to these social networks tends to be the most accurate and deliverable data. This is a great source for date of birth information.

What if you could conduct direct marketing campaigns to the tens of millions of individuals living their lives on these social networks on a daily or regular basis? And what if you could also reach the "influencers" that have hundreds of followers? These are great marketing prospects!

What if you could select individuals by their self-reported hobbies or interests, or by the way they declared they were a "fan" or "alumnus" of something? This data could be utilized for a multitude of direct marketing campaigns.

What if you could reach these social networking registrants with all of the self-reported interests and model this information against your customer house file, and then be able to review and analyze how to best market your offer to these pre-qualified prospects?

Now what if you could deliver personalized targeted online ads and special offers to these hot prospects? Talk about viral marketing!

With all of the talent, creativity and technology that we fellow direct marketing professionals have available at our fingertips, I hope you too can see and appreciate how social networking data can impact both our business-to-business and business-to-consumer clients.

Leland R. Kroll [lee@krolldirect.com] is president of Kroll Direct Marketing, Plainsboro, NJ.