Shop On TV Network

[Shop On TV Network]

Shop On TV Network

Dear Members,

I'm Mitch. I work for Shop On TV Network. My manager asked me to do some research. We are planning on starting a social networking website to help us communicate better with our younger customers.

Do you think we should use Twitter, Facebook, Myspace or another social networking source? What are the pluses and minuses? Do you have any other helpful advice.

Thanks,

Mitch King
STVN

[Jeff]

Welcome to BigBlueBall, Mitch.

My short answer to your question is "yes."

If you really want to connect with audiences, you need to go to where that audience is, and they aren't in any one place. Marketing via social networks is a touchy subject and really requires detailed, expert advice. Done wrong, you won't attract any new customers and you may even turn off the ones you've already got.

The trick with this is that people can sniff out bull sh*t from a mile away. You need to be genuine and helpful. If there's no value in becoming a "fan" or a friend or a follower, people won't do it. And if it reeks of blatant marketing (like using your company name to register at BigBlueBall forums), people are immediately turned off.

Telling you what NOT to do is much easier....

Don't setup a page or profile on Myspace or Facebook and assume you've "done" social network marketing. If that's all you do, you haven't even begun, and you may have just shot yourself in the foot.

There are some good examples, and one of the shining ones is Zappos.com, which encourages employees to use Twitter and so on. Google it for examples.

If you're really serious about developing a social media strategy, feel free to drop me a private message.