I’ve been thinking quite a bit about brands, the economy, and about the true value of social media. As I’ve said here on a few occasions, I believe that marketing through online channels are going to benefit during this economic downturn . One of the reasons is that online advertising is so much less expensive than traditional media. But… WHY?

Stuck in the old model

Raise you hand… do you like advertisements?  (If you are in marketing or advertising, put your hand down and really think about it). Why don’t you like them?

  1. They have little relevance to me.
  2. I’m tired of always being sold something.
  3. The are an interruption.

Let’s focus on that last one: Advertising is an interruption. Some marketers will tell you that when it comes down to it, the ONLY way you can advertise is through interruption. Ads are placed in the middle of a magazine, or in the middle of a television show, etc. because by utilizing the engagement you have with the media source, they can get some eyeballs. The problem is, that we as a culture have been so saturated by advertisements that we immediately ignore them. Like Gary Vaynerchuk said in a recent video , buying an ad in a prominent magazine "for 50, 60, 80 thousand dollars is clown city in 2008." No one pays attention to them. There’s certain value to maintaining brand awareness, trust me… but is it worth obscene amounts of money to get very little return on your investment?

Unfortunately, outside of the ability to be more targeted,

MOST ONLINE ADVERTISING ISN’T ANY MORE EFFECTIVE THAN ADVERTISEMENTS IN TRADITIONAL MEDIA

Read that again…. most online advertising isn’t any more effective than advertisements in traditional media. How easy is it to ignore a banner ad ? How about that annoying preroll ad before your YouTube video ? These advertisements simply get IGNORED just like their traditional media counterparts. So why is online advertising inexpensive? They often deliver the same ROI with less people seeing them.

The Super Bowl

Every year, advertising in during the Super Bowl breaks records. Companies spend millions of dollars for a

GLENDALE, AZ - FEBRUARY 03: Quarterback Tom B...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

30 second spot during the game, and millions more producing the ad. Why do ad prices continue to increase for this event? Viewership has been down in recent years. Shouldn’t that mean that ad prices should have dropped as well? NO! The value that advertisers get during the Super Bowl goes WAY past eyeballs. Ads during the Super Bowl are the one time when ads are not considered to be interruptive. In fact, many people now watch the Super Bowl simply because of the ads. The value is in the engagement. It’s in the fact that people don’t simply ignore the ads during the Super Bowl.

Social Media HAS value

Just like the Super Bowl gains it’s ad value from engagement, social media gains it’s ad value from engagement with a community of people with similar interests. Seth Goldin describes these groups as "Tribes." (btw, check out his book "Tribes ". It resonates in a big way with me). These tribes share, trust, and engage with either one another or with a set leader. With the tribe, you have engagement. Companies can engage with these communities and see incredible value from them without being interruptive.

Want and example?

Leo Laporte : People are engaged with Audible.com because the leader of their group, someone who’s opinion they respect and value says, "I have used Audible for years. I would promote them even if I wasn’t getting paid to." The result, Audible has been an unswerving sponsor for over a year on Leo’s media entities. That’s a LONG time in new media. Why? Because people are engaged with Leo, and because he recommends Audible, they can get behind that brand as well. The value in that is incredible. In fact, Leo has and his "TwIT Army" have often brought down websites simply because his listeners are so engaged, they’ll immediately check out a recommendation. THAT IS ENGAGEMENT.

Why is Oprah so valuable? Because she has more engagement than nearly any single personality in the world. Her value is also not in the numbers, but in the mass engagement her and her brand have with her viewers.

Photo by Flickr user a2gemma Yet, despite this incredible value we have available to companies, we still price advertisements too low . We price advertisements in social media similar to the easily ignored auto ad during the local news instead of the personalized Tom Brady endorsed ad in the Super Bowl that people actually pay attention to.

You may not have great NUMBERS, but you have great INFLUENCE. It’s time for social media influencers to price themselves more comparable to traditional media.