Best and Worst of Social Network Marketing, 2008

Forrester is out with a report this week on the “Best and Worst of Social Network Marketing in 2008.” Jeremiah Owyang, who authored the report, has a great overview on his blog — Web Strategy By Jeremiah. Couldn’t agree more with his overall premise:

It’s true, most social network marketing isn’t being done effectively, why? Many brands (and their agencies) are deploying “interactive marketing” (user to website) experience rather than relying on the tools of social networks “social marketing” (member to member). As a result, many brands are wasting their time, money, and resources to reach communities in social networks without first understanding that the use case is very different than a microsite campaign. Don’t just take my word for it, research from Deloitte also suggests the same –WSJ (link via Fabrice).

Forrester gives top honors to the BMW 1 Series campaign on Facebook – What Drives You? A Facebook Grafitti campaign, much like some of the things Dell has done, BMW’s What Drives You effort is a nice example of tapping consumer creativity — though I am surprised to see something like this ranked more highly than the more sustainable (and groundbreaking) work of brands like Red Bull, Victoria’s Secret and Apple.

Full list courtesy of Owyang follows:

Although some of them have changed since we first started to judge the 16 social network marketing efforts are:
Note: A passing score is a minimum of 8.

Automotive
BMW 1 Series scores a 9 (Pass) read more
Mazda3 scores a -1
Chevy scores a 3 (who sponsored the effort at the time)
Ford scores a -4

Media
HBO’s Entourage scores a 2
FOX News scores a -4
Disney: Enchanted Movie scores a -4
Sony BMG’s Alicia Keys scores a 7

Technology
Samsung’s Blast scores a -3
Dell/Microsoft (RED) scores a 6
Microsoft’s Windows Server Live scores a 6
Intel scores a -5

Consumer Products
Nike scores a 2
Kraft’s DiGiorno Pizza scores a 5
Pepsi’s Aquafina scores a -2
Mars: Skittles & Starburst scores a 0