In an age where Pandora is the radio of choice in the office and news is read on a computer screen, it seems as if the landscape of marketing and advertising is changing with technology. Traditional advertising mediums like radio appear to be taking the biggest hit by these new technologies. Social networking site Twitter is taking full advantage, and so are its users. As the use of social networking has evolved, Twitter users have found a new way of engaging “followers” by offering the same sweepstakes, contests, and giveaways that TV and radio have traditionally done.

You might have seen the recent story on NBA superstar, Dwight Howard, who awarded his one-millionth follower with an all expense paid trip to Orlando for their season opener. He wasn’t the first to find such an innovative way to generate a larger group of followers. Universities, countries, museums, entertainment venues, artists, musicians, and companies in virtually every industry have Twitter accounts and now use them as a medium for giveaways and contests to attract followers. It seems to be the new staple of musicians. Tons of musicians are utilizing Twitter to give away tickets to their concerts, a method of promotion that they traditionally had to pay for by using radio. Radio stations are even using Twitter to generate listeners and even telling people when to call in for free giveaways! Although Twitter still doesn’t have the ability to reach as large an audience as traditional radio, it is a very cost efficient method to run promotions that is also more interactive with the user.

Twitter has grown at an incredible rate and is now used as much by the 45-year old CEO, as it is by the 16 year-old socialite. Will Twitter continue to grow exponentially while the effectiveness of traditional radio dwindles? Will new technologies and the use of social networking make the appeal of traditional advertising obsolete?

Tags: advertising, Facebook, interactive marketing, marketing, social media, topright, twitter

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 am and is filed under Customer BuyWay, Strategic Playbook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.