The Shifting Sands of Social Media in Marketing
Certainly the most profound shift in media over the past few years is the growing empowerment of the consumer. The power of traditional media continues to decline as the paradigm shifts from the “voice of one to the many” to the “voices of the many to the many”. Interruptive marketing is still with us of course, but consumers are leveraging technology (TiVo, iPod) to control and avoid advertising messages. Marketers now have to earn the attention of potential customers, not just grab it.
The rise of Social Media and the dawning age of consumer empowerment has changes the marketing functions. Traditionally marketers pitched their messages at consumers in a fast and furious game of advertising dodgeball; the broader the reach and the higher the frequency the better. Local car dealers bellowed, national campaigns bedazzled, radio ads played at the same time on all the stations making escape attempts futile, direct mail poured through the door and email blasts filled our inboxes – the consumer meanwhile stood by passively and just took it, because that’s just the way it was done.
That equation is now reversed. Consumers control which messages they want to see, and customers seek out the information they want and respond to marketing that is relevant, entertaining, interesting, compelling and respectful. Great content gets spread virally, lame content is ignored, deleted, mocked and parodied.
Survey after survey confirms what rational people already know; consumers do not trust advertising, but they do trust their friends, their peers and their connections and they engage in a two way conversation with these people. The old style of marketing was one way, something that you did to people. The enlightened and empowered consumer demands a two way flow of information, they demand to be treated as if they were as smart as they really are.
The new media platforms; Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs have made having the conversation much easier, we can ask around and share something cool with a few easy clicks. The old school of advertising was focused on driving people to do something right now, focused on the short term results and for the most part was geared towards one time events. The new media, the Social part, develops relationships over time and creates long term loyal customers and brand advocates – when it’s done right.
Once a company transitions from beating people over the head with their brand message to actually providing information and engaging prospects in a conversation about their needs and desires and how they can be met, the next perplexing question is how does it get measured? The old ROI of 1,000 people saw our ad, 100 responded, 10 were interested and 5 bought, is no more – if it ever was. The new metrics are evolving along with the tools and the platforms.
The game has changed and the marketers who are willing to be flexible and fluid and keep changing how they engage prospects while keeping their eye on the prize ball of engagement that leads to participation will continue to win. This new world that is growing up all around us requires less spending on ad space and commercials and more spending on people talking to people, ultimately a much more efficient model.
Ongoing success will continue to come to business that produce a good product, sell it at a fair price and tell their story in a enthusiastic way that is honest, transparent, engaging and fun.
