I’ve just found out from a friend that my @pjnet twitter profile background is worth $43.87/month to advertisers, according to http://www.whatsyourtweetworth.com.

That same friend was sending it to me as a joke. Why? Because my value to my followers on twitter would be significantly reduced if I started advertising anything.

Advertising is not about Eyeballs

At least, not totally. Social media (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo) has allowed friends to come closer together online and share their lives. This has caused a massive issue for advertisers who were used to magazines where you buy space.  The advertisers thought that they could just follow the crowds and buy space.

Not any more! Social Network Etiquette seems to say that If you are on a social network and build a large list of followers, unless you have built that followership on the basis of a business such as being a blogger, then starting to advertise services or companies that are unrelated is a bad thing.

Advocates, Conversation and Brand Personality

This is where advocates come in. If you can generate a brand loyalty and create brand advocates, then social networks will become a powerful tool in the arsenal of the marketing department. However, to create brand advocates, you need to understand the conversation.

What is the conversation? Young people are now expecting to be able to “friend” brands in the same way that they can with their friends. So what’s needed is a brand personality to be able to friend. Without that, the conversation between a brand and it’s customer base is limited.

Your Brand needs a Personality

If you don’t have one, make it up! We did just that with @JackTheCar at a company I was part of. It was highly successful.  The hardest part was creating the identity in the first place.