Social Media Press Releases

I give it two years until I leave Facebook. Not because I don't like its features - in fact, I love being able to store my photos online, creep on my friends, and see what my Aunt is up to. No, I plan on leaving Facebook because of a trend that is already starting to happen.

Last week I got a Facebook invitation from my friend Ryan to purchase tickets for the first Milwaukee Wave game of the 2009-2010 school year, a place where he currently interns at. I don't know about you, but I love when I get unsolicited offers to purchase things or give my demographic information. What should otherwise be considered unethical from a marketing standpoint now seems to be okay because of "Facebook friend" status. All I know is that once my friends all get entry level positions and need to start building data-bases, what is now a once a month occurrence is going to be all the time. There is already a sort of pseudo-pressure to reply to friend's requests online, especially if they are good friends. I just hope that this trend doesn't escalate to the point where Facebook creates awkward online social interaction.

How great is social media?

My daily routine for getting on the internet:
Facebook
Email
CNN
Twitter (ever since we had to for class)
Perezhilton.com
So while browsing CNN I saw an article on social media and class. Check it out here. After reading it it got me thinking. How affective is Facebook advertising, blogs, Twitter, Myspace. Certain demographics tend to be on Facebook and a different demographic is on MySpace, according to the article. Like any other way of advertising or getting media attention, you have to be aware of who you are reaching. I think the hard part of social media is that people assume everyone is a part of it. While I am part of the world that checks Facebook and Twitter daily, others are not. Maybe your key audience doesn't even know how Twitter works!
The point is, like with many other things, it sounds wonderful. A quick way to reach millions of people quickly, but according to this it is a very specific type of people. PR, advertisers, and marketers should be aware of the type of social media they use and the people they are going to be reaching. You might not be getting to all different demographics you want.