Jeff Bennett's Blog

According to the Fall 2008 Ad-ology Media Influence on Consumer Choice survey, over 80% of recent camera buyers 25 to 34 years old reported some or significant influence by online user-generated content including blogs and product reviews. The survey also found that 42.8% of this age group and 45.7% of 35 to 44 year olds prefer to buy cameras, video cameras, and photography equipment online.

There is much speculation today about the value of social media on the marketing and selling of products. Over the weekend in the New York Times there was an article that spelled the challenges of marketing on social networking sites in forming connections between consumer products like detergent and people. This article was very negative on the possibility of conducting effective marketing through Facebook.

I contend that there is a very large difference between the social networking sites that have aggregated millions of people who want to connect from the thousands of long tail social media sites. In the targeted social media sites where experts and enthusiasts are sharing about their experiences there will be fruitful opportunities for most brands to conduct research, position their products and sell. There is no free lunch here though as Brands will have to invest the time to market in an appropriate manner. No 30-second spots to push their message over this base in a subliminal way. People want to buy and be part of the process not just snowed by some marketing message.

Great to see the positive results of the Fall 2008 Ad-ology Media Influence on Consumer Choice survey. This bodes very well for Photo.Net and Photography.Com which combine to form the largest photography community on the web today and other photography communities. We look to additional evidence of the social media having more and more positive influences on purchase behavior across other categories as we go forward.