In 2007, marketers were certainly diving into the pool of social media and viral marketing, but survey results show that there is a lot of room for growth in 2008 and beyond. According to a survey conducted in October 2007 by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Association of National Advertisers, American Association of Advertising Agencies and Booz Allen Hamilton, called "Marketing & Media Ecosystem 2010," marketers can be divided into two groups when it comes to targeting online influencers and leveraging the social web - leaders and non-leaders.
About 50% of marketing leaders targeted bloggers, social media and word-of-mouth during 2007, but for non-leaders, those statistics dropped to 21%, 25% and 31%, respectively.
Clearly there is a huge amount of opportunity for marketing to the social web and leveraging the power of online influencers. What remains to be seen is who will find the best ways to reach online influencers and get them talking about specific products and brands.
In September 2007, I published two posts that discussed ways marketers can effectively communicate with bloggers to get the online conversation started:
And in August 2007, I published a post that discussed the importance of online influencers in terms of reaching customers:
I'm actually surprised that marketers are just beginning to learn the powerful role that bloggers play online in terms of generating an online buzz and influencing online conversations, which can directly lead to sales. What do you think? If you write a blog, what tips would you give to marketers to help them better communicate with bloggers?
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