Social Networking entered the marketing phrase book a long time ago, but as it applies to the Internet, the concepts and the measure of success is still quite infantile and Wild West. several new companies spring up every day and while some of them orbit the huge successes like FaceBook and MySpace, a few have decided to go it alone to build up a readership by brute force.

A single blog writer such as Van den Budenmayer (a reference to the fictitious eighteenth-century Dutch composer created by Zbigniew Preisner and director Krzysztof Kieslowski) found on the iggli.com site produces 3 - 5 content pieces for a total of no more than 5 man hours of writing labor per week at a nominal rate. For that price, a cadre of 18 - 25 year-old writers quickly build up content with topics relevant to the demographic age group they spring from.

Compared to other marketing methods, the ratio of budget to net effect is a steal... so long as the net effect can actually be capitalized on.

Iggli publishes the top rated blogs very visibly so, for no reason other than competitive spirit, the writers, themselves, are encouraged to promote incoming links to their own blogs. The more readers that log in on a daily basis, the more visible their blogs become.

In a 'behind the scenes' edition of 'The Wire', which was talking about the changing world of media, one Chicago Tribune speaker noted that people don't buy the 'product' of a newspaper to get information: Information IS the product. If they can get it for free over the Internet, why buy the newspaper.... with its accompanying advertisement?

The idea of social networking is to create the critical mass of both content and readership within a narrowly defined demographic so that it attracts advertising and marketing dollars. Every article and every reader that one Van den Budenmayer brings in generates more keyword strings and incoming links, thus allowing the iggli.com site to command more advertising dollars: Every advertising dollar spent on the iggli site theoretically returns more return than on a competing site for that demographic.

Like any marketing channel, the entry cost is not free.. and not as inexpensive as some would try to make it. Those entrepreneurs that post ads on Craig's List looking for designers to design a 'Social Networking Web Site' for under a thousand are kidding themselves. Iggli is doing it right: Build the site, pay for the content creators, invest in a base, develop a way to quantify and publicize the results.... THEN earn the income from the effort. First mass, then dollars.

Tags: article, design, marketing, social networking
Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: The Art of Flying - Leszek Mozdzer