Last week I continued my
series on brands use of social media with Peter Fasano, Principal and Lead
Catalyst of Mass-Logic. The early part
of our conversation examined some of the history of social network usage by
consumers and brands – Peter explained his view using a nifty magazine metaphor
which I’ve captured below.
I won't tell you who we pegged as the "National Enquirer" of the Social Network world (hint, listen to the podcast), but it is interesting to see how some of these channels are becoming segmented.
Our discussion also touched
on brands that were creating a positive relationship with their audience over
the long-term as well as key missteps that marketers should avoid when approaching
constantly evolving platforms like Facebook.
I asked Peter to gaze a bit into the crystal ball and provide some
thoughts on the future direction of social networks and the potential role
brands can play in it – I was not disappointed – he gave an excellent summary
which I’ve highlighted here:
Bye, bye destination – hello
data stream: Brands need to get
comfortable with being part of a data-stream by social aggregators such as
FriendFeed in the real-time web. No longer
is their presence predictably published and controlled, but highly filtered and
distributed (think RSS feeds). Your
messages need to be findable, sharable content chunks that stand out from the
crowd.
Balance Community with
Business: Like any good relationship, consumers want to get to know you first,
then open themselves up to what you have to say and ultimately what you can
offer them. Designate elements within
your social network space for community and others for promotions, branded
marketing events and other business-oriented activities. Brands can play a significant role by responding
to the community’s needs and ensuring they are well nurtured before presenting their
own messages and offers.
In order for brand marketers
to successfully become a part of the data stream, Peter strongly recommends
listening to the audience as a participant (so the brand can fully understand
the where, what, when and how of the conversation), NOT as a remote
eavesdropper. But more importantly, he
stresses the critical need to know the platforms and understand the development
roadmap, potential outages and updates, less one become blindsided by rapidly
evolving technologies. Brands can
achieve this by engaging the resident developer communities early on and learn
about the data architecture and policies that will continue to govern their presence
inside social networks.
But will brand marketers be
able to truly tap in and realize the fruits of MySpace, Facebook and
LinkedIn? Consumers, employees and
partners alike have come to the virtual table, but in many cases the brand
organization is silent. Infrastructure
and governance constraints appear to be keeping many brands from participating
in communities that have already formed as Fan Pages, Groups and Profiles. But in others, I sense plain old-fashioned
unawareness about their brand presence may be the culprit. If you are a brand marketer, I encourage you
to type your brand name and sub-brand names into these networks. At the very least, you need to be aware of
what’s happening. Based on my research
to date, there is a good chance that you may not like what you find. The only way to help change how your
consumers engage with your brand is to become part of the community that is
forming around it and participate.
You can listen to the full
podcast episode here. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/MichelleBatten_iMediaWorks
Thirty-minutes barely gave
us time to discuss the Three Majors, much less scratch the surface of many
other social networks such as Hi5 and MyYearbook or social network enablers
such as Ning. I hope to have Peter back
for a future episode so we can provide marketers a view into what is happening
within these growing entities.
This week, our series
continues with “PART 4: YouTube: Everyone’s Doing It So Why Not Me?”, at 4pm
(EDT) on Thursday, July 2nd.
My guest will be Dan Greenfield (@bernaise) of Bernaise Source Media and
board member of the Atlanta Chapter of The Social Media Club – be sure to
listen in.
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