Social networking sites become advertising hub

LAHORE – Social networking websites including Facebook and Twitter have provided a golden opportunity for companies to attract and trap customers for their vested interests, Pakistan Today has learnt. Various multinational companies are using these websites in order to convey their message using the “word of mouth” technique. Companies are arranging different type of competitions in order to compel users to urge their relatives and friends to “like” a particular brand.
According to marketing managers, those days were gone when participants had to mail answers or coupons to take part in competitions. Now people take part in these competitions while drinking tea and sitting on their laptops, the managers said. They said that in some cases, these techniques have taken over marketing on TV and radio in terms of response.
They said that as the trend was changing, typical advertisements were not yielding the desired results. Companies including Wi-tribe Pakistan, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Sooper biscuits and Haier Pakistan have so far effectively used the technique of digital marketing, whereas various fans of these products have also started using them, whereas marketing managers are also terming it as an effective technique to attract customers.
Wi-tribe Marketing Manager Taha told Pakistan Today that these techniques have proved to be quite cost-effective whereas their targeted market base was also in urban areas therefore Internet was the best way to spread their messages. He said that his company gained a lot from digital marketing and fans of Wi-tribe’s Facebook page were now around 19,000.
Whenever a person joins the page, his friends and relatives also come to know about the product and consequently the brand’s message spreads amongst people. Another popular social networking site, Twitter, is also used to run such competitions and a famous brand launched a competition in which they were supposed to give a T-shirt to their 1000th follower on their twitter profile. Aurangzeb, winner of that particular competition, claimed that he was still waiting for the prize. He said that he spent hours on the Internet to win the competition but the delay in giving him the prize was depressing.
Husnain Akram, a regular participant of these competitions, told Pakistan Today that he won a lot of prizes from such competitions and it was not necessary to be a loyal user of the brand.
Akram said that he won a motorcycle, ipod and laptops from these competitions and warned that participants should be aware of difference between fake and genuine competitions. Moazzam, a student, said that it is just a waste of time, as he used to participate in such competitions and never won anything. He said that people should prefer some creative work instead of indulging in such activities, which is just a technique to trap people who prefer shortcuts to earn money.
He said that parents think that their children were working but they participate in such “time wasting” activities. Another regular participant Humayun said that some companies were exploiting users. “I had to invite 100 persons to a page of a particular brand in order to participate in the competition, but as the company gets its desired results, it forgets the participants, which is annoying,”
he said. Mrs Usman, a mother, said that her children waste a lot of time in these competitions and so far only her son has only won a shirt. She said that these sorts of competitions attract children addicted to Internet games. Mrs Usman said that youngsters should focus on some creative work instead of participating in such unhealthy competitions.