[Advertising Age, April 13, 2009]

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Google enable consumers to self-segment and self-identify through groups and interest identities. Social networking allows consumers to self-target by their own individual choices and network preferences. But how can marketers empower consumer self-segmentation and leverage it as a way to engage and connect with customers. Michael Fassnacht offered four actionable steps marketers can take:

1. Build correlation clusters between purchased products and services, and serve them up as recommendations (Amazon, Apple’s Genius feature).
2. Offer networking opportunity based on self-acclaimed interests (Facebook, LinkedIn).
3. Design and provide content or a deal-alert function that automatically informs consumers about something new or interesting in the “opted-in” interest domain of a consumer (Google Alert, Orbitz Fare Alert).
4. Enable sharing of consumer-generated content or feedback in the context of your brand (BlueCross’ “Power of the Human Voice” campaign).

 

Filed under: Internet Marketing