Traditional marketing through social media ‘underperforms’

Audiences “don’t respond well” to traditional adverts in the social networking domain, one expert has claimed.

Sonya Chawla, managing director of online marketing firm Slide, suggests in the Times that firms need to think differently about social network marketing campaigns.

Of course the medium has seen its successes.

The Greater Manchester congestion charge information website information website achieved around 15 per cent of its unique visits via its social networking site.

Social network marketing is also being used for more traditional marketing pushes.

Chocolate bar brand Wispa recently tested the waters for its relaunch through several social networking marketing campaigns.

One in particular used links to fashion faux pas pictures on website Flickr from the brand’s microsite, launched by Cadbury in October 2007.

However, Ms Chawla suggests that traditional marketing may not be such an effective approach through the social networking avenue.

“If you look at click-through rates on traditional ads in social media environments, they’re extremely low,” she told the Times. “Users just don’t respond well to ads pushed into their [personal] environments.”