(Tim Spangler)

The Social Media Marketing Symposium attracted industry leaders from both new and traditional media looking to update their marketing for a Web 2.0 world. Experts from big names like Organic, FeedBurner and Yahoo! shared war stories and tips, but the event wasn't just for huge corporations looking to rake in an extra hundred million. Sole Internet entrepreneurs could take away lessons too.

Using social media to sell products and gain market influence isn't just for the big guys. For affiliate marketers, bloggers working in their pajamas pulling in five to six figures a month, website publishers running contextual ads and even World of Warcraft item dealers and Second Life real estate moguls, an overarching message of the day was that there is room in this new media space for anyone to benefit. It's not effortless, but it's easier than it's ever been.

With all of these independent publishers looking to make a dollar through new channels, it's up to advertisers to stay abreast of new trends. Chad Stoller from Organic likened that game to party-going: "If you're late, you need to bring some beer." Advertisers, he said, need to enhance a user's experience on the Internet or in virtual space in order to keep their attention. Whether this is by paying them (AGLOCO is a multi-level marketing startup that pays users to surf the web while looking at ads) or offering enticements (the team for X-Men: The Last Stand offered MySpace users the ability to add up to 24 friends as "top friends" if they friended the X-Men MySpace page), traditional web advertising models need to continue to evolve to meet the expectations of users of social media.

As an independent web publisher, I left the symposium not only with an academic explanation of where marketing is going, but ideas for what I have to do to take advantage of its new direction.


Note: The Social Media Marketing Symposium May 9 was co-hosted by the Media Management Center and Kellogg School of Management. Tim Spangler is a student at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. For more insights into social media issues and possibilities, go here for 19 excellent white papers and a bibliography about various facets of social media and here for Limor Peer's thoughful commentary on social media and the news media.


What do you think? Please share your thoughts, experiences and reactions by clicking on the comment button below or by e-mailing Media Management Center at v-vahlberg@northwestern.edu.