Marketers ignore social media at their peril
Social media: cannot be ignored by marketers
Charlie McCathie 30-Jul-07
LONDON - Social media is having a profound impact on the relationship between brands and the consumer, and marketers need to embrace this rather than shy away from it, according to David Pickering, managing director of Eclipse Marketing.
A recent report on European online consumers found that around 60% of users take part in social networking activities, including interacting with online communities; reading or writing blogs and customer reviews; listening to podcasts; and setting up RSS feeds.
Pickering suggests that this rise in social media has shifted the control of information from big business into the hands of the consumer, who can make or break a brand by word of mouth.
He warns that all marketers need to establish a new dialogue and take advantage of social media to engage with consumers, because they now hold the power.
He said: "Instead of listening to advertisers, they increasingly refer to their peers in online communities when deciding what to buy. Social media is becoming the voice of the consumer."
According to Pickering, all companies need to sit up and pay attention, and follow the lead of Google in its acquisition of YouTube, Yahoo! in its purchase of Flickr, and News Corporation's acquirement of MySpace.
Pickering said: "Social networking is changing the way we publish, consume and share information. It is profoundly affecting the way we think -- or should think -- about marketing and public relations.
"Forums and blogs and other kinds of social networking are here to stay. We dismiss or underestimate them at our peril."
Posted Comments
Tom Roychoudhury - 30-Jul-07
The paradigm shift from edited to unedited, us to them, corporate preaching to dialog and iscussion is there in our faces. As brand gaurdians, ad people and digital do-ers we cannot avoid this. Here in the Middle East, more and more companies are waking up to this fact – and waking up quickly.
Peer publishing and peer guided advocacy is really on the radar right now – from buying the latest fad in jeans to mobile phones, SUVs and of course music and DVDs.
As an agency that works closley with global brands as well as regional and local ones, we are advocating diving deep end into this rather than wading into it via the children's pool. We don't seem to have a choice.
Roy Murphy - 30-Jul-07
Interesting article I am surprised though at the "companies
should buy social networks like news corp and youtube" this smacks just a little of me-too marketing and the big boys flapping around looking for the next big thing.
Surely, A better approach is to listen to what the consumer has been saying for several years now - "i dont trust you or your advertising" the sooner companies, and marketers start to act on this the better.
At Halpern Cowan we are creating a two way diaglog with our clients old and new, customers and staff by way of open sharing of information, blogs - both consumer and trade, company wide Wiki's etc. Social networking is not about us and them, buzzwords, or brute commercialism. It's about flattening out the knowledge curve and making informed decisions and choices - know this and you're already ahead
steve Davies - 31-Jul-07
i find it extremely satisfying watching guys like murdoch pay $584 million for mySpace to only start losing all its subscribers who are now moving over to the web 2.0 social network - Facebook.
but as much as people invite me into their online social networks, i still renege. real life is a far more interesting place to be for socialising.
Peter Petrelli - 01-Aug-07
true but when your stuck behind a pc all day and your friends have moved to australia and your family to new zealand, facebook helps.
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Sasha O'Neill - 30-Jul-07
Hi Charlie,
Where can I find that report? Any other reports/links/ideas/articles on brand community issues would be especially welcomed!