5 Ways to Increase Reach and Interaction Using Social Media

March 18, 2009 By Heather Fletcher, Senior Editor, Target Marketing

multipage

Blockbuster days are ahead for direct marketers who find a niche in social media marketing; perhaps especially for those at the namesake movie rental outfit that is capitalizing on helping Facebook poker players who go bust.

Ian Swanson, CEO and co-founder of Los Angeles analytics and social media marketing firm Sometrics, is among those providing tips on how to increase conversion rates in social media marketing. In his example, the broke poker player will convert in an advertiser-supported transaction.

"I'm playing poker on Facebook," he says. "I run out of poker chips, and I want to earn more poker chips to keep playing. At that point, I'm presented with a screen that has lead gen offers, such as GameFly, Netflix, Blockbuster, Discover Card. And if I sign up for one of those brands, one of those products, I effectively will earn my chips to keep playing the Facebook game."

Swanson and others say the social media marketing naysayers who aren't seeing the conversion rates he is—of 1 percent to 2 percent per 1,000 impressions—still may be trying to push brand awareness, a nebulous concept in what he characterizes as more of a cost-per-acquisition space.

"I really don't feel like going the traditional route works in the social space. It's not effective," seconds Chad Israel, social marketing director for Columbus, Ohio-based marketing agency Engauge. "You see, essentially, the same clickthrough rates and conversion rates that you do for traditional banner ads."

So here's what they say works to ramp up reach, interaction and conversions:

1. Getting the Word Out. Erin Robbins, in marketing at Mountain View, Calif.-based Web-sharing tool company ShareThis, says widgets or browser plug-ins such as those her firm offers can aid in spreading the news. Among the 82,000 to 85,000 publishers (such as ABC.com) who use the tool, which can be customized, there's been a fivefold increase in sharing, she says. That's helped, Robbins says, by the fact that ShareThis stores what users send and allows them to search it and send it again via many channels, including e-mail, instant message and text message.

Robbins says that while e-mail remains the primary way people share information, Facebook and Twitter are close runners-up. (ShareThis allows users to send posts to their Facebook and Twitter accounts.)  

2. Invest in Advergaming. New York-based game software company Arkadium points to comScore research from January that shows how online gaming sites grew 27 percent last year to 86 million visitors in December 2008 and that people spent 42 percent more time playing.

• MORE ON
• SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA