Research released by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) in the UK suggests that people are growing increasingly tired of requests to join brand pages or install brand applications in Facebook and other social networks . The research found that almost two in every three of the 2,000 respondents to the survey were fed up with the constant requests to join groups and try new applications. Digging deeper into the research reveals more information. When asked what they disliked most about social networks, the most popular response (with 31% of respondents citing this) was

Image by MattRhodes via Flickr common debate among those working in marketing and social media is between engaging people on your own domain - in an online community that you build and manage yourself - and engaging people where they are - out in social networks like Facebook and MySpace or on YouTube, external blogs or forums. In fact the best way to build a sustainable approach to marketing and engagement using social media is to do both. A There is, of course, a place for both of these things - engaging people in social networks can often be more suitable for

Image by MartinPhotoSport via Flickr This week I was asked to talk to the Marketing Directors Network in London about how organisations are using Twitter. Use it to engage people in Twitter just as you might engage people in Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and other social networks and online communities. Tags: Matt Rhodes Social Media co-creation customer We’ve written before about how celebrities are using Twitter and how organisations are using Twitter as an engagement tool . In both cases, perhaps the best advice is just to try using Twitter and to see what happens.

Image by FredArmitage via Flickr Executive Social Marketing Bootcamp Matt Rhodes Required reading Social Media Blog blogging Brand Business co-creation Conversation customer communities David Alston freshminds FreshNetworks innovation market research marketing Marketing and Advertising online communities online market research qualitative market research Radian6 Simplicity Social marketing social media Social network Twitter Virtual community web2. For any brand using social media , an important first stage is to find out what people are saying about you online and then monitor these discussions and conversations.

Image by mugley via Flickr They may be online research communities that do not nurture organic discussions on broader topics or between research activities. Tags: Matt Rhodes Online communities Brand Business co-creation customer communities Debate facebook freshminds FreshNetworks innovation market research On the Web online communities online market research online research community promise qualitative market research research social media Social network Virtual communit An online community takes effort and often time to plan, build, seed and grow.

Image by World Economic Forum via Flickr Rather Facebook is going to get it’s money from a rather more prosaic source: the market research industry. The social network is trialling features that would allow firms to survey its 150 million members to find out their thoughts on their product or market, get insight into their lives or test new concepts with them. An article in today’s Daily Telegraph in London ( Networking site cashes in on friends ) reports that Facebook has plans to monetise in a way that it has been unable to do to date. It’s

Image by Darren Hester via Flickr The promise of co-creation is that getting customers involved in the innovation process, and letting them inform the design of new products, will mean that you develop a product that is better suited to their needs and will ultimately perform better in the market. Tags: Innovation Matt Rhodes Online communities Business co-creation cocreation Collaboration communities consumer insight customer communities customer insight Design Douglas Bowman e-consultation freshminds FreshNetworks Google innovation Of course, it is not always this simple. Often

Agostini aka dhammza via Flickr Tags: Matt Rhodes Online Community Examples Online communities Social Media advertising Arts Broadcast Business Channel 4 co-creation customer communities Digital media facebook freshminds FreshNetworks heroes hgtv innovation market research marketing Marketing and Advertising myspace nbc newspaper ninth wonder On the Web online communities online market research qualitative market research rate my space Sex education sexperience social media Television Television program the sex education show the sex education show vs porn Twitter United States Virtual

Image by Bert Kommerij via Flickr Even more would wish for the kind of brand recall that Susan Boyle is now getting from her video, or indeed the access to the lucrative US market that happened in a matter of just days. Well this is one of the benefits of social media but also one of the problems for brands and marketers. It was just a week ago that Susan Boyle performed I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables on Britain’s Got Talent . And in that week over 35 million people have viewed her singing  the song on YouTube.

Image by alistair_35 via Flickr Tags: Holly Seddon Online communities Promoting Community Management Business Chat room co-creation community community management community manager customer communities freshminds FreshNetworks innovation Lurker On the Web Online and offline online communities online market research social media Social network Troll Twitter Virtual community Web web2.0 As an online community manager , you will have a ‘gut’ understanding of who makes up your community. Their rough interests, probably the gender split and a fairly good grasp of