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DMIJ
3,3 An experiential, social
network-based approach
to direct marketing
162
Adrian Palmer
School of Business and Economics, Swansea University, Swansea, UK and
ESC Rennes School of Business, Rennes, France, and
Nicole Koenig-Lewis
School of Business and Economics, Swansea University, Swansea, UK

Abstract
Purpose – Direct marketing faces challenges and opportunities associated with the emergence of
social network media. Companies need to address target audiences both directly and also indirectly
through social media. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the changing media
landscape of direct marketing, and proposes a model of direct and indirect targeting of buyers.
Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual model is presented which brings together the
needs of producers, sellers and communities. Customer experience is used as an integrative framework
for reconciling the sometimes differing needs of these groups.
Findings – The literature is reviewed, noting changes in media habits. Previous studies of social
network users provide a picture of the benefits sought by members of online communities.
Originality/value – Assessment of direct marketing has traditionally emphasised cognitive and
behavioural metrics. This paper has proposed an experiential framework which may be more difficult
to measure, but evidence is presented that emotions associated with use of social network web sites
may be more important as a key success factor for direct marketing.
Keywords Social networks, Communities, Direct marketing, Customer satisfaction
Paper type General review

Introduction
Direct marketing became a powerful tool at the time when the cost of communication
was falling rapidly. The subsequent proliferation of low-cost internet access opened up
opportunities for companies to deal directly with thousands or millions of individual
customers in a way that was previously unimaginable, and only manageable through
the use of intermediaries. The cost of communication has continued to fall with new
communication channels emerging, presenting opportunities as well as challenges for
direct marketing. The opportunities derive from the greater choice of low-cost means of
communicating with current and potential customers. But it is a challenge for firms to
evaluate the effectiveness of this proliferation of new channels. A more significant
challenge is the lack of control over communication which this increase of channels
implies, as consumers are increasingly able to communicate among themselves, and in
Direct Marketing: An International this high load communication environment, the direct marketer has to compete for
Journal attention with messages from a wide range of peer group-based media.
Vol. 3 No. 3, 2009
pp. 162-176 The purpose of this paper is to critically review recent developments in social
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-5933
network media. While many in the marketing community are scratching their heads
DOI 10.1108/17505930910985116 wondering how the recent generation of web-based social media will generate profits,
this paper takes the perspective of direct marketing by asking why and how a message Direct marketing
sent by a company may be more effective if it is targeted at individuals through social
network media. In particular, the notion is explored that users’ experience of using
social media will predispose them to look more favourably upon a company sponsored
message when it is embedded in social media, rather than targeted directly at the
individual.
There is a dilemma faced by companies planning to interact with social networks. 163
On the one hand, they may seek to control the communication environment within the
network, in an effort to make sure that their brand message comes through clearly.
They may also be attracted by the availability of demographic and lifestyle
information available to improve their targeting to individual members of the network.
But on the other hand, a true social network implies members feeling a sense of
ownership of the community, and there is evidence that individuals may be resentful of
corporate intrusion into what is perceived to be their own community space (Croft,
2008; Hitwise, 2008). Individual online social networks have often gone through very
rapid life cycles of growth, maturity and decline as communities are first seen as
vibrant and attractive, and then lose their appeal to members of the community as they
become dominated by commercial interests (Boyd and Ellison, 2007). It has been
reported that many once widely used web sites such as Friendster and Friends
Reunited have gone into decline, to be replaced by newer sites such as Facebook and
Twitter which were beginning their life cycles.
This paper proposes an experiential-based model to guide direct marketing in the
assessment of online social networks. In Figure 1, three elements of the social network
environment are shown – the seller, the customer and the community. In the figure,

Traditional direct
marketing interface

Producer Customer

Producer-led Customer-led Modern direct

communities communities marketing in a
social network
context

Community

Figure 1.
Direct marketing in a
social network context
DMIJ the traditional interface for direct marketing has been between the seller and the
3,3 customer, represented by the hatched area. With the introduction of the community
element, the customer interacts with self-selected communities. Sellers need to interact
with selected communities to achieve a variety of benefits, including spreading positive
word of mouth and gathering information about buyers’ needs and preferences. Of
course, the communities that the seller wants to belong to may not be the same ones
164 that the buyer prefers to be involved with. A community that is dominated by its
individual members may be difficult for the seller to have any influence over, and if it
does seek influence, members of the community may become resentful. If a community
becomes dominated by the seller, it can become similar in nature to traditional
seller-led channels of communication, with fewer opportunities for achieving the
benefits of community involvement.
The challenge for direct marketing – and the focus for this paper – is how to
achieve a position at the centre of Figure 1 that combines the seller, the buyer and the
community. It is argued that the “experience” of using a social network site is an
integrative framework for reconciling the needs and expectations of buyers, so that the
community and firms’ involvement in communities can mutually reinforce buyers’
experience.

The changing media environment

Mainstream print and broadcast media have faced major challenges in recent years,
with many newspaper titles facing closure and television channels suffering shortfalls
in revenue. An important reason for this has been migration of significant amounts of
advertising budgets to online channels. Research by Forrester Jennings(2007) has
indicated that audiences and attention is shifting to online channels as 52 per cent of
Europeans are regularly online at home. Around 36 per cent of European internet users
watch less TV, 28 per cent have reduced their newspaper and magazine reading and
17 per cent have decreased listening to the radio since going online. This shift away
from conventional media has been further exacerbated by the recession from 2008
which led many advertisers to cut their budgets, resulting in print and broadcast media
receiving a diminishing share of the declining total budget (Jennings, 2007). Online
advertising has been the beneficiary of recent changes in the allocation of advertising
budgets, but this general shift hides a number of different formats for communicating
with target audiences, ranging from mass appeal banner ads placed on frequently
visited web sites, through to personalised e-mail campaigns in which the message can
be uniquely tailored to the requirements of individual target buyers.
The focus of this paper is the proliferation of online media which is driven by
user-generated content. The terms social network media has tended to be used
interchangeably with the term “Web 2.0”, and one summary by Constantinides and
Fountain (2008) identified the following principal categories of social media:
.
Blogs. Comprising individuals’ or firms’ online journals, often combined with
audio or video podcasts.
.
Social network. Applications allowing users to build personal web sites accessible
to other users for exchange of personal content and communication.
.
Content communities. Web sites organising and sharing particular types of
content.
 .
Forums/bulletin boards. Sites for exchanging ideas and information usually Direct marketing
around special interests.
.
Content aggregators. Applications allowing users to fully customise the web
content they wish to access.

Social media can be characterised as: “online applications, platforms and media which
aim to facilitate interactions, collaborations and the sharing of content” (Universal 165
Maccann International, 2008, p. 10). The importance of social network media lies in the
interaction between consumers and the community, and in the facilitation of
“asynchronous, immediate, interactive, low-cost communications” (Miller et al., 2009,
p. 306). Social network sites allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public
profile within a bounded system; to articulate a list of other users with whom they
share a connection, and to “view and traverse their list of connections and those made
by others within the system” (Boyd and Ellison, 2007, p. 211). On larger social network
sites, individuals are typically not looking to meet new people but are more interested
in managing relationships by maintaining contacts with old friends who are already
part of their extended social network (Boyd and Ellison, 2007; Hart et al., 2008). To sum
up, social network sites can be seen as alternative communication tools which support
existing relationships and activities in a fun and colourful way that can enrich the
users’ experiences (Ofcom, 2008). Many social network web sites have emerged;
attracting distinctive groups of users in terms of their demographics, for example the
average age of users of Bebo is lower than for Facebook. Many appeal to communities
with specific shared interests (e.g. the “Dogster” and “Catster” networks are targeted at
pet owners).
In addition to consumer-oriented social network sites, many professional and trade
associations have set up networks to exchange information of particular interest to
members (for example the social networking site “LinkedIn” is particularly aimed at
professionals). This paper is primarily concerned with personal users of social network
sites, rather than situations where there is a business use. It is particularly concerned
with the use of social network media by young people.
There is now a lot of evidence that social network sites have become mainstream
and it has been reported that globally, these sites account for one in every 11 minutes
spent online. In the UK, this figure is even higher – one in every six minutes (Nielsen
Company, 2009a). Over half (54 per cent) of internet users between 16 and 24 have set
up their own page or profile on a social networking site (Ofcom, 2008). In the USA,
67 per cent of online users between 18 and 32 make use of social networking sites and
60 per cent have set up their own profile (Jones, 2009). It is also reported that social
networking and blogging sites are now more popular then e-mail as a means of social
communication – Nielsen said “social networking sites eclipsed e-mail in global reach
at 68.4 % vs 64.8 % in February 2009” (Nielsen Company, 2009b, p. 9). The take up of
online social media has been at the expense of traditional media, and a study by Ofcom
of the media habits of UK 15-24 year olds shows that since using such media for the
first time, the amount of time they spent reading national newspapers declined by
27 per cent; reading local newspapers by 22 per cent; reading magazines by 21 per cent;
listening to radio by 15 per cent and watching TV by 13 per cent (Ofcom, 2006). Online
social media offers opportunities to connect with these hard-to-reach audiences drifting
away from traditional media.
DMIJ Overall, there is evidence that online social network sites are seen by young people
3,3 as an integral part of their life (Constantinides and Fountain, 2008). A number of
studies have shown, that emerging adults use social networking sites to connect with
people from their offline lives, such as friends and family (Ofcom, 2008; Pempeka et al.,
2009; Subrahmanyama et al., 2008). It has even been stated, that young people live their
lives online and in public via these sites (Subrahmanyama and Greenfield, 2008).
166
Producer-led communities
Companies would generally love their product to be at the heart of a community, and
many companies have developed their own blogs and online forums for this purpose.
Web 2.0 presents a number of opportunities for companies to get close to their markets,
including observing and collecting information; hosting or sponsoring communities;
providing content to communities (such as music, information or entertainment); and
participating as members of online communities (Miller et al., 2009). However, it can be
difficult to reconcile the concept of a community with a company’s desire to manipulate
communication to its advantage.
There have been many examples of companies who have used social network media
to put them at the centre of a community. Starbucks, for example, has a Facebook site
which claimed to have 1,727,314 “fans” in 2009; it is present on Twitter; has its own
YouTube channel and its own online community web pages (MyStarbucksIdeas,
Starbucks V2V and StarbucksRed). The power of social media for brand development is
indicated by the research organisation virtue’s social media index which measures the
volume of conversations for brands on a variety of social media and reported that the
brands of iPhone, CNN, Starbucks, Apple and iPod dominated the social space in
January 2009 (Miller, 2009). It has been suggested that 43 per cent of social networkers
in Europe have visited a personal space of a brand and 16 per cent have already had a
dialogue or sent a message to a brand (Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, 2007).
Another study noted that 36 per cent of active internet users thought more positively
about companies that have blogs and 32 per cent trusted bloggers’ opinion on products
and services (Universal Maccann International, 2008).
There has been a lot of discussion of “brand communities”, formed when individuals
become interdependent because of collective identity, shared rituals and moral
responsibility to members (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001). A brand community is capable
of collective action over time, notably sharing information, perpetuating the history and
culture of the brand, providing assistance to new members and exerting pressure on
members to remain loyal to the collective and to the brand. In one study, 62 per cent
of “Generation Y” users had visited a brand or fan page on a social network, and
48 per cent actually joined such a network, citing reasons that included: getting
news/product updates, view promotions, view/download music/videos, posting
opinions and connecting with other customers (O’Malley, 2009). However, the same
study also noted that although the majority of young consumers (84 per cent) noticed
ads on social networks, only 19 per cent found them relevant and 36 per cent never
clicked on any ads (O’Malley, 2009).
For the brand owner, nurturing brand communities involves a fine balance between
using pressure to steer the community in the direction that would be in the brand owner’s
interests, and relinquishing some degree of control of the brand to the community
(Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001). Successful online brand communities need to include
a variety of interests that have a direct, but non-intrusive connection with the brand in Direct marketing
order to generate a sense of belonging to a group and shared interests (Brown et al., 2007).
For example, the brand community “MyStarbucksIdeas” gives users the opportunity to
share, vote, discuss and see Starbucks ideas.
A company’s involvement in social network sites can also result in a wider range of
strategic and operational benefits. By inviting feedback, or simply observing
conversations, a company can learn about customers’ needs and inform its new 167
product development policy. In the language of “service dominant logic”, a company
can involve members of the community in the co-creation of value through the
generation of ideas (Constantinides and Fountain, 2008).
If online brand communities are perceived by users as not being trust-worthy, open,
interesting, relevant and engaging with the target audience, they can rapidly harm a
company’s reputation. There have been reported cases of companies disguising their
involvement in a community by falsely posting messages that purported to come from
a member of the public, praising some aspect of the company’s actions. While the
company might have thought that it could influence opinion by manipulating the
community, the subsequent uncovering of its covert actions generated bad publicity
that undermined trust in the company. For example, in the case of Cillit Bang, a fake
blogger named Barry Scott was set up as a marketing vehicle and left marketing
messages in blogs and posts on other web sites (Johnson, 2005). One widely reported
example occurred where the retailer Wal-Mart promoted a blog about two apparently
independent travellers in a camper van who were generously treated by the company.
It only emerged later that the bloggers’ were actually paid by Wal-Mart to plant good
news stories about the company (Gogoi, 2006). Similarly, it is reported that when Sony
covertly implemented a viral marketing campaign for its Play Station, consumers trust
was undermined when they realised that the company had fabricated apparently
independent users’ comments (GamesBlog, 2006; Graft, 2006).

Using social networks to facilitate purchase decision making

Social network sites have a practical cognitive function in facilitating product choice.
There is nothing new in the effects of a buyer’s peer group in influencing purchase
decisions and basic buyer behaviour models have traditionally included peer group
influences on the final outcomes. There is a lot of evidence, for example, that, when
comparing professional and personal services providers, customers prefer to be guided
by information from friends and other personal contacts rather than a company’s
formal promotion mix (Harrison-Walker, 2001; Susskind, 2002). Of course, positive
word-of-mouth recommendation is generally dependent on customers having good
experiences with an organisation. An important communication objective for firms is
often therefore to leverage “free” positive promotion through word-of-mouth
recommendation, and to limit the damage caused by negative word-of-mouth.
Instead of a dyadic relationship between the company and its customers, direct
marketing increasingly has to become involved in a triadic relationship between the
company, the customer and the community to which the customer belongs. As well as
telling their friends, messages left with social network sites can spread a message very
rapidly. Many companies have embraced the internet to develop “viral” marketing, in
which a message can be spread quickly from one person to a handful of friends, who
each in turn inform a handful of their friends (Ferguson, 2008). In one case, the online
DMIJ marketing firm NewGate distributed advance excerpts of a new children’s book to
3,3 online forum leaders. When the forum leaders read the pre-released chapters they
quickly spread the excitement and anticipation for the book, which ended up being on
the New York Times bestseller list. The company had used more than 400,000
discussion boards and message forums, targeting about 11 million “e-fluentials”, who
in turn reached 55 million consumers by spreading the word (Cardwell, 2002).
168 The “Ford Fiesta Movement” campaign by Ford used social media before the launch
of the new Ford Fiesta. The company engaged with the online community by inviting
100 young people to live with the car for six months and to report on their experiences
on a variety of social media, including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.
Each of these “agents” completed monthly special missions based on a theme which
were designed to be fun experiences. More then 4,000 applications were submitted and
applicant videos on YouTube were viewed more than 640,000 times (Dilworth, 2009).
There is evidence of the extensiveness of referral from social network sites, with
reports that 64 per cent of social networkers in Europe will visit a web site related to
what they have seen on a friend’s site, while more than 10 per cent of visits in 2007 to
entertainment and music sites came by direct referral from social network sites
(Hitwise, 2008). Viral marketing is becoming increasingly important to companies, with
evidence that influencing customer behaviour by means of traditional marketing media
is becoming less effective, with the proliferation of social media and falling readership
levels of conventional media (Leskovec et al., 2008; Subramani and Rajagopalan, 2003).
There is support that messages received through online communities are more
believable and trusted than messages received through conventional media (Gillin,
2007). Ipsos MORI (2006) reported that over half of European internet users are more
likely to buy a product/service if they have read positive comments on the internet from
other customers/private individuals whilst 34 per cent have not bought a product in the
past on the basis of bad online reviews. In the UK, trust in online reviews is reported
to be higher than trust in conventional marketing communications. In one study,
25 per cent of internet users trusted reviews on a recognised review web site and
15 per cent trusted reviews written by customers or private individuals on a blog. In
contrast, only 14 per cent of internet users trusted a newspaper article, 9 per cent a TV
advertisement, 8 per cent trusted reviews of a company’s products on its own web site,
4 per cent trusted an e-mail sent by a company and only 2 per cent trusted information
written about a company by its CEO (Ipsos MORI, 2006).
Social network sites can pose a threat as well as an opportunity to companies as
they can rapidly spread the views of dissatisfied, angry customers. As an example, the
bank HSBC announced in 2007 that it intended to end interest-free overdrafts for
students after they had graduated, but was subsequently forced to do a u-turn and
restore the facility. Many commentators attributed this change of heart to the strength
of feeling expressed through Facebook circles of friends. Other examples include the
case of an impersonated Exxon employee posting messages on Twitter (Havenstein,
2008) or two employees from Domino’s pizza in North Carolina who posted a video of
disgusting food preparation on YouTube (Vogt, 2009).

Experiential benefits of contributing to a social network web site

So far, the benefits to buyers of having a community of users to help inform their
purchase choices have been noted, and in turn, communities can help in spreading
a seller’s messages. But what motivates individual users to contribute to their Direct marketing
community? Why should an individual share their thoughts with possibly unknown
individuals, in situations where they receive no fee or financial incentive for
communicating messages? In short, what are the benefits to an individual of belonging
to a community?
A distinguishing feature of social network sites is the apparent willingness and
ability of individuals to communicate their thoughts to others, including people who 169
they do not know. In one study of social network web sites, it was found that 23 per cent
of users had pasted comments about an ad and 25 per cent had forwarded an ad to other
users of the site (Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, 2007). There is a theoretical
basis for understanding why people may voluntarily give information to others, founded
in models of reciprocity. Implicit calculations of return to self have been at the heart of
many evolutionary models of socio-biology (Dawkins, 1976; Hamilton, 1964). Darwinian
models imply a self-centeredness in which altruistic acts of co-operation are only
undertaken where they are calculated to improve an individual’s chances of survival. It
has been traditionally presumed that altruism is necessarily related to direct reciprocity
of benefits, e.g. “I will tell you about the performance of my washing machine if you will
tell me about the reliability of your car” (May, 1987; Peck and Feldman, 1985). However,
this basic model does not fully take account of altruistic acts which result from
co-operation which is reciprocated indirectly through other members of a society, and
not necessarily the individual to whom altruism was initially extended. Altruistic
activities have been modelled using game theory (Rapoport and Chammah, 1965). In a
modified Prisoner’s Dilemma game, contribution is contingent upon the expected
response of the other party (Axelrod, 1984). Basic prisoners’ dilemma games assume a
simple bilateral return of altruism, but this extension includes indirect reciprocity from
diverse individuals, encouraged by the latter’s reputation within their society for
reciprocating acts of altruism. This raises a question of how an individual assesses the
other party’s likely response. A theoretical framework for the evolution of a community
based on indirect reciprocity has been developed by Nowak and Sigmund (1998). Their
overriding idea is that information about another player does not require a direct
interaction with that player, but can be obtained indirectly either by observing the
player or by talking to others. In a social network environment, the contribution of
individuals to anonymous individuals may be seen as a process of acquiring a reputation
which will give the contributor a feeling of power and influence when their comments are
taken seriously by others. There is some evidence of this effect in the prestige attached to
bloggers whose comments are widely sought by others, and have on occasions been
cited by mainstream media (Edelman and Intelliseek, 2005). It has been noted that
peer-group and emotional support, as well as a sense of social identity are often a more
prominent motivation for participating in online communities than information seeking
(Burnett, 2000; Wellman and Gulia, 1999).
Another approach to understanding the experience of contributing can be found
in the considerable literature on charitable gift giving. Giving may sometimes be an
anonymous individual act, but, in many cases individuals may respond better in
social/visible contexts, where their acts reinforce their self-identity, and where their
participation in communities of giving provides them with a highly rewarding
experience. Giving has always been a strong expression of the value of relationships,
with a cycle of giving, receiving and repaying (Banks, 1979).
DMIJ Experiential benefits of belonging to a social network web site
3,3 So far, this paper has explored social network sites from the perspective of producers’
desire to create a focus of multilateral communication focused on themselves, and a
community of users in which individual users perceive value deriving from members
themselves having control over communication within it. How can the needs of
producers and community members be reconciled in order to achieve a position in the
170 centre of the conceptual model shown in Figure 1? This section will explore the nature
of the experience of using an online social network web site which reconciles the needs
and expectations of both sellers and buyers.
The concept of “customer experience” is increasingly being promoted as an
intellectual integrator of the diverse stimuli that consumers perceive. A framework for
modelling the complexity of the holistic experience in online social networks is
provided by Edgell and Hetherington (1996, p. 5) who state that ”social relations shape
the experience of consumption” and identify four sources of experience: the
consumption of the product, citizenship, family membership and friendships.
The experiential focus on community is evident in the suggestion that consumers
seek products less for their personal value in use than for their linking values to other
“tribe” members (Cova, 1997; Cova and Cova, 2002). In the terminology of “service
dominant logic”, value in use is gained through relationships with peers. Social groups
that once gained identity through their relationship to their church, work group or
geographic location find these sources of identity more difficult in an increasingly
individualistic, secular and mobile world, and instead relationships through social
network sites become a source of shared community experience (Cova, 1997). Some
have talked of a “Brandscape” as an increasingly important type of community, in
which consumers feel emotionally related to one another (Sherry, 1998).
But what makes a web site attractive to users, to such an extent that it should
become the forum for shared community experience? There has been extensive
research into users’ interaction with web sites, focused on the topic of human computer
interaction (HCI). Within this context, the concept of “flow” has been used to define
experiential benefits of using web sites generally, and its principles can be applied to
social network sites in particular. Flow has been described as an experiential state “so
desirable that one wishes to replicate it as often as possible” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988,
p. 16). The experience of flow occurs where an individual’s skills and knowledge are
matched with the perceived challenges of a task at hand and when both the challenge
and skills exceed the level of difficulty that is typical for the individual’s day-to-day
experiences. Therefore, to remain in flow, an individual must be presented with
progressively more challenging scenarios in order to ensure that the level of
complexity is consistent with their motivation and skills. It has been suggested that the
experience of flow may be particularly high where an individual is uncertain about the
outcome (Arnould and Price, 1993). In the context of social network web sites, users
may remain online for lengthy periods seeking to progressively find new information
or to challenge their established ideas.
Research in the field of HCI has taken a predominantly cognitive, operations-driven
approach (Hart et al., 2008). Traditional methods for evaluating web sites are very
limited in understanding the user experience as they do not consider the “felt
experience” which encompasses emotional and sensual qualities (McCarthy and
Wright, 2004). This is also noted by Blythe et al. (2003) who talk about “funology”
which moves from standard usability issues towards concerns about fun, enjoyment, Direct marketing
aesthetics and the experience of use. A compelling online customer experience is
the result of engagement, excitement and fun and is positively correlated with the
recreational and experiential uses of the web and the time consumers spend online
(Novak et al., 2000).
In the context of social network web sites, a study by Hart et al. (2008) investigated
Facebook’s user experiences, using a theoretical framework by McCarthy and Wright 171
(2004) and Jordan (2002). The study found that the most sought experiences were
curiosity (e.g. checking profiles and browsing photos of friends); enjoyment (such as
pleasure when using the various ways of communication within Facebook), and also
fun and excitement. Pleasurable experiences were especially felt when sending special
gifts or using innovative ways of interaction with friends through games, quizzes and
other applications (Hart et al., 2008).
Further evidence of the importance of emotions in understanding users’ experience
of social networks sites was suggested in a study by Sas et al. (2009). Using a
diary-based methodology, they found that young people’s most memorable experiences
with Facebook were about positive emotions concerned with connectedness between
close friends, such as re-experiencing others’ positive events, exchanging virtual tokens
of affection, reliving the “good old times”, anticipating future memorable experiences
and with humour to entertain their audience (Sas et al., 2009).

Management implications
There can be little doubt that online social media will become an increasingly
important element of marketing activity. In fact, the term “direct marketing” may
become a misnomer, as companies increasingly have to integrate direct communication
that is aimed at target customers, with indirect communication aimed at their social
network.
The various examples in this paper have demonstrated the new and unique
opportunities that Web 2.0 offers for companies to engage with their markets and to
learn about customers’ needs. The purpose of this paper has been to highlight the
dilemmas that direct marketers face in trying to reconcile their desire to dominate and
control an online community, with the community’s desire to retain autonomy as a
member-driven community. Social network web sites are not controlled for content in
the way that legislation and voluntary codes of conduct influence the content of printed
and broadcast media in many countries. For example, in the UK, the Broadcasting
Standards Authority and Advertising Standards Authority require clear delimitation
between editorial content and paid-for advertising. Viewers of a television drama, for
example, can generally be reassured that the use of a branded product in the drama is
the result of artistic or editorial judgment, rather than payment by the brand owner to
influence the purchase behaviour of the audience.
For social network web sites, some commentators have noted the confusion in users’
minds when commercially provided material is mixed with anonymously submitted
amateur material, sometimes using adaptations of previously published material
(Keegan, 2007; Wilson, 2007). This may give rise to frustration where the viewer is not
able to distinguish between genuine opinions of individuals, and commercially
sponsored messages. Moreover, social media which rely entirely on user-generated
content with only minimal moderation, allow everybody the opportunity to become
DMIJ a self-proclaimed expert and to influence users who may not be able to assess the
3,3 quality of the contribution (Gillin, 2007).
Understanding the experiential values of social network web sites becomes crucial
to effective direct marketing. Measuring users’ perception of experience poses
significant challenges in a sector that is accustomed to extensive use of cognitive and
behavioural metrics. The fact that it is difficult to measure should not undermine its
172 importance as a marketing management framework. As Einstein is reported to have
said “the things that can be counted don’t count, but the things that count can’t be
counted”. A range of qualitative, interpretative and ethnographic approaches is likely
to yield as much insight as conventional behavioural metrics.
Is the area shown in Figure 1 as the confluence of the seller, the buyer and the
community achievable as a positioning strategy? Or is it an unrealistic vision to keep
all parties happy all of the time? Will there be an inevitable life cycle of sites being
launched and developed as genuine community-based networks, but eventually
transform themselves into conventional commercial profit seeking sites, whereupon a
true sense of community is sought in new sites which begin their own life cycle?
This paper concludes with the suggestion that it is possible to reconcile the
apparently competing demands of community and company control. A successful
example of engaging users and providing a relevant, interesting, enriching experience
using social networking sites is provided by the Royal British Legion. It created a
Poppy application that allowed users to display a poppy on their Facebook profiles as a
mark of respect, which attracted mainly younger audiences. Social network sites
generated over one in ten visits to the specially created micro-web site: www.poppy.
org.uk, with 31 per cent of the visitors aged between 18 and 34 (Hitwise, 2008). This
approach opens numerous opportunities for companies to develop and sell unique
branded widgets, applications and other fun stuff which enhances the community’s
social status and experience of the brand, such as in the case of the confectionary brand
Skittles which offered games and widgets on Bebo (Croft, 2008).
Another apparently successful integration of company and community is provided
by Bebo’s UK online drama “KateModern” which ran from July 2007 to June 2008 and
attracted around 1.5 millions views per week. This drama was funded by sponsorship
and product placements of brands, such as Orange, MSN, Cadbury Crème Egg and
Toyota, and incorporated community involvement through discussion of what should
happen next in the story of Kate (HitSearch, 2008).

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Corresponding author
Adrian Palmer can be contacted at: mail@apalmer.com

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