Bebo eyes Kiwi advertisers 

Bebo is New Zealand's number one social networking site, and now one of its top executives wants local companies to begin using its site to sell products.        

The website is only one and a half years old, but already has over 30 million members worldwide and turns about seven billion pages a month.

Over 800,000 Kiwis are members - most of them aged between 13 and 30.

According to bebo vice president Jim Scheinman this age group watches 30% less television and are instead turning to websites like bebo to keep in touch.

"They're not reading newspapers, they're not reading magazines. They're all shutting down," he says.

Bebo executives believe their online audience is a marketer's dream and it wants New Zealand advertisers to milk that devotion by using what they call "engagement marketing".

Companies make a page which may include trailers and photos to which bebo members can add their comments.

Members can even add the trailers to their own pages.

"What happens is the beboers who interact with these engagement marketing programmes become brand advocates, actually spreading the message of that brand virally through bebo," says Scheinman.

But just because they are engaged, it does not mean beboers like the products, and some take the opportunity to slam the advertisements.

Nevertheless Scheinman says this sort of advertising will take New Zealand from basic web advertising and "leapfrog" the Australian and UK and US markets.

And with the growing appeal of bebo, advertisers overseas are now scrambling to plug into the online generation.