You there – the anti-social media marketing professional – it’s time to throw in the towel. The ideas and opinions of millions of consumers shared publicly (sometimes very publicly) via online communities have shattered your ivory tower where brands and messages are the sole control of the marketing and public relations departments.
“Social Media” is not a fad; it is the oldest form of marketing – word of mouth. The difference now is the volume, range and duration of the words. Every person who interacts with your company, your brand, your product, your employees has access to instantly broadcast their opinions to a global network.
None of this is new. We’ve been meeting online to share experiences, rate and review products and make decisions based on this information for years… decades. What have changed are the volume of consumers engaging in this activity, the widespread availability of technology to instantly & easily share our thoughts and integration of this content by mainstream channels – like broadcast media outlets and search engines.
Don’t believe me? Perform a Google search. When you look at the search results page–the ranking of which is derived from an algorithm that takes inbound hyperlinks and user preference into consideration–you can see the prominent integration of user generated content.
Search results that include product reviews, blog commentary, user generated videos & images and real-time Twitter updates–content produced by your customers, not by your marketing department–is helping consumers make decisions about whether or not to do business with you. With approximately 200 to 300 million Google searches performed every day, you had better understand how word of mouth will change your ability to influence the market.
In 2010, acting antisocially is antithesis to survival. If you haven’t already, it is time to fully embrace the new, social you.
Tags: social, Social Media, social networking