Social media - online sites like blogs and discussion boards where consumers create and share information and opinions directly with each other -- are beginning to affect brands. Examples like the Kryptonite lock crisis and Intuit's continued success have convinced marketers to incorporate social media into their plans. In many companies, marketers must convince their senior management executives who don't understand the influence the social aspects of the Web experience is exerting on their brands.
Here's the elevator pitch to give to a busy executive: The influence traditional media and marketing have over consumer perception is waning as people use the plethora of digital technologies to circumvent traditional sources to obtain information and entertainment from each other. But these social media outlets are more than another channel through which to deliver messages to the marketplace. Companies like GM, Microsoft, Intuit and New Line Cinema are successfully using social marketing strategies to understand and engage their audiences more deeply - with demonstrable business results.
Here are the data, examples, and details to support the pitch.
Advertisers have begun to experiment with inserting ads into blogs, podcasts or RSS feeds and even conducting viral marketing campaigns. While there will be a place for these strategies, these approaches use social media as a one-way channel. To gain the full benefit of the Web's true nature as a social medium, companies must learn to participate with their audience in a deep, continuous dialogue.
The Social Web's New Communications Forms Draw More Users
As consumer's experience and comfort with the technology has increased, online users have expanded their social activities to tap into or contribute to consumer-created content like product reviews.
The Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that 44% of American Internet users post on blogs, discussion boards or engage in other social media outlets. A quick search on Amazon for the "DaVinci Code" found over 3,000 customer reviews ranked by helpfulness as rated by the site's users. Retailers including Circuit City and media companies like CNET also host reviews on their sites as an added value to their visitors.
While blogs get most of the credit for the rise in social media, customer opinion sites, usenet groups and discussion forums receive over twice as many posts a day as blogs (about 4-6 million). Discussion boards' popularity persists because enthusiasts find a community that shares their passion: PriusChat.com visitors share ideas, information, and experiences with the hybrid gas-electric automobile.
The dramatic growth of social media sites show that while the form may change, participatory content is a powerful draw: comScore reports that MySpace grew 318% and broke into the top ten Web sites (measured by unique visitors) in 2005. Wikipedia grew 275% to surpass popular sites like ESPN.com and in May 2006 ranked just behind The Weather Channel. YouTube, which wasn't even around a year ago, now attracts 12.6 million users.
A Technology Banquet Feeds Individual Creativity
Increasingly, Internet users go beyond simply reading content or buying merchandise and convert their Web experience into self-expressive event: they create their own content, spend more time with content created by other people, and remix bits of what they find in both traditional media and from other individuals.
The technology rush of the past 10 years - from the Internet, to digital photography, to blogs, to digital editing software - unshackled people's creative urge, taught them how to distribute their creations, and brought them feedback from peers that further fed the urge.
- Amazon.com pioneered user reviews. Consumers embraced the idea of sharing their opinions of a book, and not solely relying on professional reviewers' opinions to decide whether to pick up the latest bestseller.
- Digital photography's boom introduced people to sharing their creations, first via email then via first-generation photo-sharing sites like Ofoto. As a result, photo-sharing became the fourth most popular Web activity according to Forrester.
- Blogs made it simple for an average Web user to post his or her opinions to the world: armed with a browser, basic typing skills, and a few straightforward Web commands, anyone can publish their thoughts, rants, or daily journal in a few minutes a day. Specialized blog search engines like Technorati made sure the world could find these creations.
