Social Media Is Active Sharing Online. That’s Mike Murphy, Chief Revenue Office at Facebook’s definition and it works for me. Mike was the guest speaker at a recent AiMA event where he shared his views and about social media and insights about how the 18 to 24 demo views communication….
This is the “Let it go generation.” A phrase coined by P&G Chairman, President, and CEO, Alan G. (A.G.) Lafley. Mike heard Lafley speak at the ANA Conference where Lafley told attendees it was important to let consumers take over the brand’s message by providing social media opportunities.
Quite a different way for corporations to view marketing. For many traditional marketers, it can be a frightening approach as well. Social media changes how a brand manager develops communication strategies.
However, at the same time social media is a wake-up call for those of us who propose to “know” our customers. Do we really? Even with the thousands and thousands of dollars spent on excellent research do we really “hear” the voice of our customer?
Consumer generated media splashes cold water in our face. It forces us to pay attention to the customers we “serve.” From my perspective, it reinforces that customer-focused and relationship-driven marketing are critical strategies to embrace as we quickly move into an era where the norm will be active online sharing.
Take Aways From Mike Murphy’s Facebook Presentation
18- to 24-year-olds are net natural while 25+ are immigrants to social media.
Best Practices To Building Social Media Campaigns For 18 to 25 Year Olds
* Bring users in as part of the experience
* Give users a reason to share
* The brand must be a part of the experience
* Relevancy is key
* Listen without fear (I love this one!)
Benefits from Social Media Strategy
* Important feedback loop
* Endorsement of brand to friend
* Short-cut to relationships
A New Way to Measure ROI
* Extent of sharing – How many times people share within a community.
Toby, I was at the AIMA meeting and Mike was indeed a good speaker and provided some good insight into the current state of social media.
You know this idea of customer generated media is not new and has generally been an effective tool for years. Now I will date myself here, but when I was a small child The Howdy Doodie Television show had a look-a-like contest. People sent, via mail, photos of their kids (mine was one) to be judged. That was consumer content. Many companies held essay contests where people sent in their writings to be judged. Later television shows such as Americas Funniest Videos brought consumer content to the small screen in a big way.
Of course, the next logical step was the Internet. Forums were a big hit right from the start and actually before the www was available. Now this new medium makes it very easy for people to submit their creations and increases participation.
So I think the lesson is that people of all ages have the desire to create social media. It is just that younger audiences are more comfortable with current technologies. So we should look for all ways to tap into the great and venerated marketing concept.
Thanks for your blog Toby. I enjoy reading your materials.
Harry Hallman
Harry,
Let’s both date ourselves: My mother submitted my photo to the Howdy Doody Show. Thank God it didn’t win.
Toby,
I read some interesting data yesterday that warns against taking much credence in customer profiles from social media. The point being made was that such a small percentage of readers comment and otherwise participate, the data is greatly skewed to the few.
Thanks for your comments. Harry & Lewis .. I’ll come clean but don’t tell anyone .. I loved Howdy Doody too.
Lewis, I think we need to proceed with care regarding the comments from social media (blogs, review sites, etc.). I do believe that they can be used as an early warning sign, to gage trends and for sensibilities.
Not being privy to the backend of the CMG/research companies’ stat analysis programs I can’t say if at this point the sophistication is to place to go much further. But I do have questions regarding pay per post posts and their influence; and identifying and weighting influencers. CMG/research should go beyond simply counting links and comments. As this industy continues to emerge I’m sure CMG/research will face more challenges.
Here is social media at work. Two people living in the same city who attended the same local event but who ‘met’ on the Daily Fix. Gotta love it! Harry hope to catch you at the next AiMA meeting.
Harry’s comment about the “history” of social media is interesting and something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately — nice, Harry!
In my view, and as Harry suggests, context is important here: The internet broadens the accessibility, immediacy, and tools of social media-style efforts…but its merely capitalizing on something that’s been around in various formats for a long time…even as a marketing concept: remember the “Draw Blinky” matchbook “contests”? An emerging media play, old-world style, if there ever was one….
Well all I can say this; thank goodness 60 is the new 40. Ummm, maybe I just made that up. (:-)
The downside of that, Harry, is that 18 is the 8!
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2006/06/is_18_the_new_8.html
But anyway — history does inform a lot about the present, which is why it’s important to know it.
It is probably too early to see where the social media fall out is going to happen — a quick look at the MoneyTree report shows that funding social media start ups is more popular than Borat right now — but a few ‘old school’ reminders of the limits of letting customers control your brand are important to keep in mind.
Bias is the biggest concern in customer generated media — the guy who feels like commenting as opposed to the hundred who waited until after the second cup of coffee. We’re all social beings and we’re swayed by persuasive arguments (are we in an election year?), so the loud or earliest ones often will count more than the majority. We need to remember that social media isn’t democracy.
However, loyalty, and its most tangible output, ‘extent of sharing’ (or referral) is one of the great contributions of active social networks. Peers sell to peers better than we ever can and the new tools available to them (‘new’ compared to Howdie Doodie, for example) give everyone a great soapbox (and studio) to evangelize your brand. You hope.
Regards.
As usual, the big companies are too far away from their customers to know what is actually happening. They use the buzzwords/phrases to make it look like they know what the deal is.
The diference is in the doing.
I can listen to a Fortune 100 CEO tell me that ‘the consumer is in control!’, or I can pay attention to Spike when he tells me what happened when Fiskars and Brains on Fire created the Fiskateers movement by empowering their community.
Don’t tell me about your theories, tell me about your accomplishments.