The $100,000 Social Experiment

Have you ever seen what kind of interest $100,000 generates? Find out below, possibly one of the smartest gorilla/viral style campaigns I've seen in a long time :) Shame it didn't go the extra step I was hoping for though!

Why Crowd Baiting Doesn't Always Work.

The Social Networking boom has certainly created a multitude of new Online Marketing techniques, strategies and locations. Take Digg.com for example. It's a social networking website (news & articles) that is powered by user created content. You can submit, share, comment, vote, promote and discover anything from anywhere.

For marketers, it's better than blogging & myspace combined. Digg.com is a promotional paradise, waterfront with penthouse styled 5 star marketing opportunities. This website has millions of people log-in on to look for something to read. Not only that, articles are ranked so the more diggs you have, the more traffic you get, the more people want to read your article to see why so many people before them digged your article!

Obviously, this gives marketers a juicy platform to launch any style of campaign they like and get server crashing traffic! BUT. Be warned. As with any campaign, at the end of the day it's about sales - not traffic. And if it's about sales - it's about people, not just clicks.

Digg.com delivers traffic in the bucket loads, but they are only there for a caffeine fix, not the friendly chat that goes with it. And since your bottom line requires your campaign to increase sales, it's now about building relationships - something Digg.com users don't have time for.

There are 2 important lessons learnt here;

1. Traffic Doesn't Always Generate Sales
2. Choose Your Social Media Platform Carefully

Next time you're investing time into social marketing, don't just jump into high-traffic websites. At the end of the day, it's about sales - not clicks. And as we see the change in online marketing with mediums such as PPC bids getting increasingly expensive, optimisation will become one of the most important factors in sales generation. Spend less - Get more.