Finding your audience is one thing. Connecting with them on their terms is a different game altogether. Interactive marketers know that there's a massive, active user community on social networks, but finding out how to engage with them has been an uphill battle. Thankfully, at least one social network is helping to give marketers an in.

Facebook is currently the fastest growing social network in the world, and it’s easy to see why — the site offers users high interactivity and broad access to their friends' daily lives. It fosters a very tactile sense of community. Facebook also protects that community experience with rules for advertisers. These rules ensure that ads blend seamlessly with user news feeds. They also disallow tactics like the "fake" closing of windows or mousetrapping, and prohibit excessive capitalization and unnecessary punctuation.

Facebook has essentially forbidden marketers from using hard-sell tactics. In doing so, they're helping conventional interactive marketers understand the relationship between user and social network. The social networking experience is a personal one, populated by friends and soon-to-be friends, and customized to reflect individual likes and wants. Social networking users know when they're being marketed to, and resent invasions of their personal networks.

Facebook and MySpace have both cornered the market on Generation Y — a coveted marketing demographic. With a yearly spend of $172 billion, Gen Y has the potential to bring home real winnings for retail companies. Unfortunately for traditional marketers, users don't typically see social networks as part of their buy path. According to Jupiter Research Advertising Analyst Emily Riley, Gen Y may use social networks to discuss, critique or even champion products — but they do this to build product awareness, rather than make buy decisions.  

Marketing on social networks should be seen less as a selling game and more as a period of cultivating brand loyalty. Facebook and MySpace give brands the chance to build rapport with a powerful consumer class. Smart marketers use these networks to play up the fun aspects of their brands. They create custom apps, offering music and video downloads and hosting contests. They launch pages for brand mascots, such as H&R Block's Truman Greene or Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man in the World. And though brand identity is front and center, the products signified by those brands take a back seat to style, friendliness and yes, community.

Springbox has explored similar issues of style and social involvement with Dell, whose experiential and Dell Lounge marketing efforts are fodder for unique Facebook and MySpace experiences. "Unique" is key here; to truly capture social networking audiences, Dell's Facebook and MySpace pages must offer perks not available to non-users. Moreover, they must give special value to interaction with the Dell brand, giving brand evangelists something to be proud of and letting brand explorers understand its feel.

With 91% of large brands expected to increase their social marketing ad spend in the next 12 months, marketers are under the gun to connect with users. Lots of brands will be talking to the social networking audience; their success will depend on whether they choose to engage with users.