MD Single Cup - Mainsteam Marketers to Social Media: Let’s Just Be Friends
There is a sexy appeal that draws mainstream marketers towards social media. The question is; Is social media destined to be with mainstream marketing, or is it just a casual fling?
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Technorati Tags: mainstream marketing, marketing diner, nashville geeks, social media
May 31st 2008
I’ve actually been thinking about this very topic quite a bit recently: how will/can corporations use new media as another avenue for marketing or otherwise tapping in to the customer experience. I think the main challenge will also be the main determinant of whether it persists or not, and that is the idea of credibility - can a company approach new media marketing in a way that’s credible, believable, and acceptable.
For example, there is no lack of “New Media Marketing Consultants” on Twitter. They friend 15-20K people in the hopes that half of those will return the favor, thereby generating a group of people that can be constantly spammed. To my way of thinking, this completely lacks any sort of credibility because there’s no element of conversation.
On the other hand, look at @comcastcares on Twitter. There you have a guy that works for CC Customer Service using a new media outlet to tap in to the customer experience and establish a conversation with the customer. In addition to technical support-type issues, he counsels people on services, listens to feedback, and even injects some of those human elements (as of my writing this, his current twitter is about Dutch Apple Caramel Streusel Cheesecake, which I’m hoping isn’t the newest Comcast product on offer).
For that matter, look at blogs - the rise in popularity of people like Leo Laporte and the TWIT-ers, Lifehacker, TechCrunch, etc is, at its core, an exercise in new media marketing. The ones that are REALLY successful are the ones that have built a community rather than just another place to dump content.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think the longevity of social media marketing in the “mainstream” (although that word is starting to mean less and less - look at the CBS/CNET deal) will depend on the uptake, which in turn depends on whether people buy into it or not.