Are Facebook and Twitter best ways for brands to reach consumers? -Fast Company

Advertising dollars are moving to Facebook due to its targeting capabilities. But what if there was an even better way for branded goods to reach their desired audiences?

The major thesis of advertising today is that marks gradually moves to Facebook, because on Facebook, you can find the wanted to advertise to specific audience. Wishes to market the 30-something moms in Tallahassee who like ice cream? Facebooks user controls, you can check your ad will be placed just in front of people who have identified themselves as 30-somethings, living in Tallahassee, which like ice.

But as many information as Facebook users are posting about themselves, the system is still based on the assumption that core: namely, because a user has "liked" X, added the topic or x for their interests, they are actually cares deeply topic x. which can actually not be the case. There is, therefore, the project's experience as today launches a new product that can help advertisers get in front of at least some of the audiences they care believes that it has acquired a horse in this race. And that could disrupt the Facebook advantage horse, at least when it comes to advertising.

The project's experience is a network where people connect with each other on the basis of experiences they are interested. It started four years ago as a network, Online support for people with MS, but it has since grown to a place where people share their thoughts and experiences on everything from fly fishing and parents to breast cancer and global warming. In other words, not people connecting to the project's experience based on, as you know, ("social graph"), as they do on Facebook. They connect based on what they care about ("interest graph").

About a year and a half ago connected to large brands began to contact the company to find out how to get in the site's users, particularly in front of them, that was part of the communities reasons marks already supported. Haagen-Dazs, had, for example, recently launched a campaign in support of honey bees. They wanted to raise awareness about their project among people on the Web site can, of course, cares about the issue, as they discuss the problem with the colony hides or environmental issues in General.

Since then, a number of companies work with experience the project, including Sony, Nestle and American Express. Corporate interest reflects the greater tendency to cause marketing. Increasingly brands are trying to get customers and build loyalty not only talk about their products, but also by highlighting their obligations for special reasons. Pepsi did this in a big way last year, when it decided to cede the advertising during the Super Bowl and instead put $ 20 million budget for work supporting reasons, voted on by visitors to his Pepsi Refresh Web site.

Last year launched experience project BroadCause, a Web site that featured brands cause-related campaigns. Today BroadCause is growing with a new toolkit, non-profit organizations and charitable organizations can use to manage projects and campaigns online — everything from high school stops auction United way raise awareness about his campaign to drum up a million training volunteers.

Experience project managers expect that the new toolset to attract many more cause-related society on its website, which in turn becomes an increasingly attractive place for brands wishing to cause marketing. Experience project will continue to match the marks with communities based on custom in the short term, but in the long term, directors say they plan to create turnkey solutions--like AdSense-where brands can manage their own campaigns themselves.

Currently, cannot experience Project user base of five million hold a candle to Facebook or even Twitter. But after four years on the market, says the leadership, the site has hit a turning point, and growth is now faster. User environment, founder Arm Berjikly tells Cnnmoney.com, increasing by 5% per month.

Plus, says CEO Pete Jackson, a business leader, serving Event brites Board of Directors and most recently was a partner at Mike Maples ' floodgate Fund is here to specify their potential: "we do not go to tags" when coming up with this idea, he tells Fast Company. "They came to us."

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