Healthcare communications and marketing news and information

The social network universe is fragmenting – and has been for a long time. Clearly, MySpace and Facebook will continue to receive lots of attention from the mainstream media, bloggers and ordinary Americans.  However, niche social networks (including lots in health) have been popping up all over the place.  Why?  There are two reasons:

1.    New tools are helping people who do not have lots of technical skills to develop social networks.

Ning has been the poster child for do it yourself social networking. Lots of people are using Ning-based social networks. A few sites are doing quite well.  For example, TuDiabetes.com, a social network for diabetics, is growing rapidly.

2.    In health, social networks are recognizing they must specialize in order to better satisfy the major needs of Internet users.  

For example, people are always interested in finding out which drugs are truly safe and effective and want unbiased information.  Recently a few social networks have popped up that are designed to meet this need.  One interesting site is iGuard, which uses the wisdom of its online community to help users better understand the real-world safety and efficacy of prescription medications.  

 

All of this activity is great, but one has to ask the question: How will all of these social networks survive?  Well, currently most social networks depend on advertising.  However, the revenue pipe is constricting rapidly.  Recently, eMarketer reported that social network advertising spend is slowing.  One reason is the ongoing recession.  Another is poor ROI.   Considering that most advertisements are irrelevant to most social network users this is not suprising.  87% of respondents to a Prospectiv study said “few or no ads matched their interests or preferences.”

Should marketers be looking at niche social networks?  Well, it certainly makes sense in light of the Prospectiv study.  It is much easier to target ads accordingly when you have a better understanding of who will be seeing them.

However, advertising won’t get companies very far in the long run.  They must figure out how to develop long-lasting and strong bonds with active users of their brands. However, many (especially in the health industry) are afraid to take this step for many good (and not so good) reasons.