So, everybody’s on Facebook.  CNBC recently recounted the story of a 21 year old college student navigating the online village that is Facebook to find her biological mother.  The searched proved fruitful and the two were reunited after a fairly short while and with the help of users from all over the country.  If you want to get in touch with a person or even a group, surely they are on Facebook.

I can look back to 2005 (I think it was) when my much younger co-workers introduced me to Myspace.  They convinced me I needed to start a profile and that the process was easy.  It was, but I didn’t do much with the network.  A few years later I discovered Facebook and that one stuck.  I must say I check FB at least every other day.

Now, into my later thirties, I see a variety of people connecting via this online world.  It is true that I noticed my college-aged son’s use of FB backed off a bit once I and his mother joined, (obviously he had an increased workload and was no way disenchanted by my new access to his electronic identity) but it seems Facebook is still very relevant to a wide array of ages and demographics.  I can keep in touch with friends with whom it is difficult to coordinate get-togethers.  I can see their children grow up, see their vacations, track career moves…whatever.  More than that, my interests are coupled up conveniently with advertising right in a column on the page.  Other than recognizing the time-sucking potential of this “socializing,” as a media professional, I can’t help pondering the marketing potential of social media in general.

Pew Internet data shows 79% of American adults used the internet in 2009 up from 67% in 2005.  Of these, 46% used a social networking site like Myspace, Facebook, or LinkedIn, up from a measly 8% in 2005 with Facebook being the most popular (as of 2009).  73% of the adult social network site users had a Facebook account with 48% on Myspace and 14% on LinkedIn.  Yahoo, YouTube, Flickr and Classmates.com each had 1% of these users – a viable market indeed.  According to an Advertising Age article, Facebook noted its fastest growing demo as 55-plus.  But the college kids (boy, it hurts to call them “kids”) aren’t leaving.  An Anderson Analytics poll credited Facebook as the most popular website on campus above Google and Yahoo in the Fall of ’08; the most probable reason being how engrained this all is into their lifestyles.

Although longevity of this medium is an issue to monitor for ad agencies and marketers, the fact is, it is viable currently.  So how do they best utilize it?  Demographics themselves seem to take a second chair to interests.  If someone likes a band, drink, retail store television show or film, marketers can position their wares directly in front of that likely consumer regardless of age, race, and gender, what have you.  Social Network Marketing has become a marketing focus unto itself over the past few years.  It does seem, however, that the value and the ROI of social marketing are difficult to quantify.

Most companies have their hand in this focus, but many are slow to commit resources to the endeavor.  For example, according to a 2009 AD Week article, social marketing is treated as a responsibility of an established division at Coca-Cola, but at Dell, there are more than 40 full-time employees dedicated to the cause.  Coca-Cola did, however, send a group of “Happiness Ambassadors” out recently on what was their biggest social network marketing push to date. Known as Coca-Cola Expedition 206, the goal was to visit 206 countries and territories where Coca-Cola is sold and to seek out and document sources of happiness around the world.  They made it to 186, but the company viewed the endeavor as a success.  It’s a good example of intertwining product with experience.  People online could follow and, more so, get invested in what these personifications of soft drink are doing.  The team members brought their adventure to followers on a social networking sites, including YouTube (http://youtube.com/expedition206), Twitter (http://twitter.com/x206), Flickr (http://flickr.com/e206) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/cocacola#!/cocacola?v=app_174987628085).

While there are still plenty of questions regarding this marketing effort as a whole, it seems to me that one thing is certain: tackling this behemoth allows for plenty of creativity and trailblazing combined.  There is a new way of reaching consumers that is continuing to grow, to ebb and flow, and I can see AMS Pictures and Texas video production in general, being a big asset to those ready to jump in.