Comments on: ‘Content Nation’ …. Marketers, Are You Ready For Feedback?

By: Ed Burghard

Ed Burghard — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:24:31 +0000

I want to make you aware of the Strengthening Brand America Project. It is a community of practice designed to help people involved in community economic development successfully reapply product and corporate branding principles. The objective is to help our communities become more competitive for capital investment in a new, interdependent global economy. Success will result in accelerated economic recovery.
You can check it out at http://www.strengtheningbrandamerica.com. I am hoping your Organization would consider helping increase awareness of this project.

By: Beth Harte

Beth Harte — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:59:36 +0000

John, thanks for stopping by! Glad you found the post [are you monitoring?! LOL! ]. Yep, I totally agree with you…and a lot of brands are falling into that same vacuum because they don’t understand the “content nation” (or how social media works) and that they will share their opinions, etc. The one thing I am wondering is if the hybrid Tahoe came as a result…that would be interesting to know.
Promotional Products, while negative feedback has helped to make products/services better…it’s never an easy pill to swallow. I think there’s a difference between critism and negativity. Some people are negative just because they have the tools to do so…they often deserve to be take with a grain of salt.

By: Promotional Products

Promotional Products — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:52:10 +0000

Wow that rule number ten there is so true. People are going to give you their honest opinion you can’t expect everything to be all good. Incidentally, I think that you can only improve from negative feedback, you have to let it motivate you to make you better.

By: John Blossom

John Blossom — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:00:30 +0000

Beth,
Thanks so much for the reference to Content Nation, the full draft of the book is available online as well as in print: http://bit.ly/qbJOr .
I agree that General Motors was ahead of themselves to some degree and that the had the potential for a more positive outcome with their Tahoe campaign, but if they had thought a little more carefully about the model that they chose, for example, they could have done much better. This could have been done, of course, by not operating in a vacuum – by pre-testing the concept in social media channels to see what the probable interests and outcomes could have been. Instead, as you have pointed out, since this came from an agency working pretty much in a vacuum, the results were somewhat predictable.

By: Beth Harte

Beth Harte — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:21:34 +0000

Tom, when reading through the information, I got the impression this was an idea generated by an agency. I wonder if they really considered it as ‘handling over their brand’ versus a cool contest (we know the difference). From the cnet article, they received a lot of great ads and the negative ads were minimal. But we all know it’s the negative that folks pick up on for blog posts, articles, etc.

By: Tom Wanek

Tom Wanek — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:25:41 +0000

Make no mistake, opening a dialogue with your customers is a good thing. But this event was poorly planned by GM. I don’t believe customers should have control over a brand’s messaging.

By: Beth Harte

Beth Harte — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:53:32 +0000

Tessa, I agree. As a marketer, we learn early that we must know thy market…what better way than social media? I guess I am spoiled coming from the high-tech sector because often developed products/services based on customer needs (genius, eh?).
Kevin, I totally agree with you. I have never believed that organizations don’t control their brand (esp. identity and messaging). I do, however, believe that they can’t control brand relationships (well, only by working really, really hard to keep customers satisfied).
I love the idea of a post…I would think success runs a fine line.

By: Kevin Horne

Kevin Horne — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:32:02 +0000

I’m not saying Beth nor Tessa (first commenter) intimated this, but i hear it enough so here goes: I don’t think it is wise to advise any brand marketer to go ahead and declare “open season” on his or her brand.
If brand management has been redefined as “giving it over to the public (many of whom are NOT your customers and NEVER will be) to control,” then I think we’ve lost the game before it has even begun.
Someone needs to write a nice blog on “Best Practices for Running Successful UGC Campaigns” (emphasis on the word “successful”)

By: Tessa Carroll

Tessa Carroll — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:14:15 +0000

As a marketer, my personal belief is that we should embrace social media as an open forum and be prepared for the dialog it creates. I would rather have feedback that helps me improve upon my product or service. As long as your sufficiently prepared and are willing to accept negative feedback, social media can open many doors for your company.
Tessa Carroll
VBP OutSourcing
http://www.blogs.vbpoutsourcing.com