There is a lot of noise in the social media space.

Seventy-eight percent of marketing professionals polled in Coremetrics’ annual “Face of the New Marketer” survey saw that social media marketing was a way of getting an edge on their competitors. However, just 7.7 percent of their total online marketing spend was allocated to it compared to 33 percent to online advertising and 28 percent on online promotion design and implementation.

The large majority of advertising on social media sites such as Facebook, My Space and LinkedIn follows the standard model of pushing ad exposures. While providing cost effective reach and frequency, and a degree of targeting, these ads do little more than devalue display advertising. The only people benefiting from traditional display advertising in social media sites are ad networks such as Advertising.com and DrivePM which have found gigantic supplies of unsold ad exposures to package as part of their networks. 

Why does traditional advertising not work in social media? First, most consumers’ decisions on social media sites take place through the referral of friends. Second, the push marketing approach does not apply to niche, fast-moving audiences found in social media sites. Three, the mindset of social media users is driven by self promotion and community (social engagement) ” in order to connect there has to be an exchange that is of value to the user.  

Companies such as socialmedia have recognized that advertising funded applications, serve social media users better – integration works better than solicitation. These companies leverage third party applications on social media sites, running ads of these applications and splitting the revenue with developers. This approach, while more effective than traditional display advertising still seeks the endorsement of users in order to be effective.

Achieving success in social media requires commitments longer than many campaigns or creative briefs are scheduled to run. Do not allocate and spread a social media budget over some artificial timeline created by your media plan, but regard it as a methodical exercise of understanding, listening and connecting with a social media community. The reality is that social media is more than just an advertising channel.

Open Skies, British Airways new premium transatlantic airline, and our latest client, embraced this approach; choosing to place social media and a blog at the heart of the airline’s launch and conversation. Furthermore, it invited 20 members of the FlyerTalk community, as well as FlyerTalk founder, Randy Petersen to be part of the inaugural commercial flight on the 19th of June.

At Web Liquid we believe social media is about measuring, understanding and harnessing the influence of consumer generated content.  First it’s important to make clear that CGC is not a marketing medium, it’s a conversation amongst consumers about the products/services they want to buy, might buy or have bought. The fact that the conversation is about products and services presents the marketing opportunity but doesn’t grant anyone the right to crash the party with their sales pitch.
Among the many points of difference between the broadcast and online models of marketing is the notion of service over solicitation. It’s a core value that consumers have brought to the space and one which smart marketers have been quick to understand – in the world of CGC it’s an imperative for a corporate effort to succeed. But the real opportunity for corporate participation in CGC is not simply to look at the space as a tactical channel to *not* solicit (advertise), rather as the cornerstone of an entire marketing strategy.

First, CGC presents a valuable research opportunity, serving as a public record of those conversations and consumer sentiment relative to your brand and that of your competitors. A number of companies have popped up offering technology to capture those conversations for analysis but much of the application of that technology is still quite tactical – measuring the WOM around a particular event or campaign. In fact, the CGC research opportunity is to use that insight on a regular basis and with quality marketing-based analysis to derive valuable insights and identify concerns and opportunities.
Armed with this valuable research data and the insight of experienced marketing analysis, CGC presents the opportunity to engage customers and potential customers’ at the most critical time in the purchase process – right when they’re looking for the information about a product or service.

Today, CGC is WOM online, and its effect on the consumer purchase funnel is significant. Consumers discover influential discourse from peers at the most critical moments leading up to a purchase. And after the purchase, the consumer often becomes yet another creator of this content, adding their voice to the conversation and their consumer experience to the public domain.

About Alain Portmann

My job is simple. To inspire staff, clients and consumers.

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