Dr. Neil Hair

I read a really interesting article from zdnet on social networking sites intent on capitalizing on what they refer to as social branding. Far from just using a site like facebook to promote yourself people are starting to do what they've always done when it comes to other mediums - make brand referrals. Interesting business model for the host sites - advertising revenue and so forth for one. However what's really interesting is the potential for using individuals in terms of brand sponsorship. Of course as marketers we need to avoid at all costs the impression that we are simply paying people to carry influence - this was tried a couple of years ago with the start of blogging (you may remember the story, student writes blog about really new and exciting technology - people come to realise student doesnt exist - people annoyed with sponsor - backlash ensues). That said there are I think ways in which we can encourage social branding. One way would be for the networking sites to add categories - my stuff etc… perhaps linked in some way to associate programmes at places such as Amazon (thus creating a win win scenario for everyone). Another way would be for companies to offer trial uses for technology on the promise that findings (good and bad) would be reported publicly. Interesting times for those that can commercialize this model.