Brand marketers flocking to online social networking opportunities

Brand marketers surveyed recently by JupiterResearch are starting to embrace online social networking tactics. 32% surveyed say they’ve used promotional microsites already or plan to within the year, 22% cite advertising within web logs, and 24% cite the use of online campaigns that consumers can contribute to.

As more advertisers turn to participating in social networking sites, they’ll be struggling not only with each other to be heard, but also with the networking site visitors themselves. 89% of social networkers visit the sites to communicate with their peers, Jupiter says.

Another challenge for advertisers will be winning the trust of visitors to social networking sites, according to Jupiter’s report, “Social Networking Sites: Defining Advertising Opportunities in a Competitive Landscape.” Wile 30% of frequent social networkers trust their peers’ opinions, only 10% trust ads, according Jupiter.

That means marketers looking to make the most of social networking must look to site visitors to carry the ball by attracting the influential consumers among them who will spread the word on products themselves to their peers—a forum social networkers are more inclined to trust over direct advertising, Jupiter’s report notes.

To precipitate that buzz, marketers must design campaigns that get social networkers talking, Jupiter says For example, an ad for a Spiderman movie advertised on AOL’s social site, AOL Peopleconnection, gave networkers the ability to attach the movie`s video trailer to their own online profile. “When friends saw the trailer on their friend’s page, they viewed it as content rather than an ad,” Jupiter says.