Consider how social media has changed the world of market communications in general. In the past, marketers talked at their audiences. With the advent of social media, however, marketers are now not only able to talk with their audiences, but have their audiences talk at them. The two-way exchange is what makes it possible for marketers to form trust economies with their audiences (making social media marketing so valuable). But enabling consumers to talk back at us on their own terms is what provides us with precisely the same kind of information that we once relied on focus groups for.

Of course, if you want consumers/users to take the time to either talk with or talk at you, then you have to make it worth their time. Essentially, as with online video advertising, you have to give back to the marketplace. After all, trust economies are built by interacting with communities and adding to their value. Well, a huge way in which marketers are going to be able to give back to such communities is by entertaining them.

The first, most obvious, and already prevalent way in which marketers are going to entertain and engage their audiences is by establishing communities on established social networks such as Facebook. Through such communities, marketers can associate brand names with a certain range of interests.

The second way in which marketers will entertain is by custom crafting unique user experiences and interfaces. Specifically, by offering web-apps and widgets that users can ad to already familiar portals and social networks, marketers will be able to make sure that the brands they represents become part of the users daily online leisure online.

The third way in which marketers will entertain markets audiences is though good old fahion content. Specifically, marketers will have to create unique content that users will actually value. This is something already occurring. The most common variant is the infamous viral video. They're fun to watch and fun to share.

Another example of content-based marketing, however, are consumer-product blogs run by retailers. Because users can comment on reviews, information is seen as more objective and, therefore, valuable. In turn, the portal itself is perceived as more trust-worthy, and the content converts into sales (at least on quality items).

Now, some forms of entertainment are better suited for establishing trust with different audiences than other. For example, viral video are probably better suited for lifestyle-based marketing campaigns than, say, a campaign that emphasizes the no-nonsense ROI of using a certain business application. So when planning online marketing campaigns in the future, what you should be concerned with is not just whether your campaign entertains, but how your campaign entertains. Beyond identifying the consumption habits of target markets, then, marketers will also have to design campaigns that those consumers will want to consume.