Harness the Social Web
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Social media is information content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. – Wikipedia
From a commercial sense, advertisers look to drive customers to their content through a few standard vehicles:
1. Stating and Proving that their product is superior to others
2. Pricing their product competitively
3. Promotion and Publicity for their product (radio, internet banners, TV commercials)
Marketing folks have lived with the fact that while their customers may appreciate their product, very few make a purchase decision because of Branding, rather they purchase due to other factors like price, appearance and social factors “my best friend has one!”
A very personal example of this is my wife’s affinity for Vera Bradley bags. Empirically, the bags are made of inexpensive quilted cloth, are radically colored and patterned and lack today’s “handy places” for cellphones. My wife refers to her bag as her “Vera Bradley” and she always points out other women with their bags, comparing hers to theirs.
Her love for Vera Bradley bags extends well beyond the ability of marketers to promote their product. The key buying decision is being made due to the social repercussions of not participating in life with a “Vera Bradley” slung on one’s shoulder. Essentially the core marketing effort was performed through the creation of a social network of acceptance and reverence for a Brand. Participating with that Brand brought self-satisfaction and envy, non-participation with the Brand brought lowered expectations and social ostracism.
Social Media has a similar capability to drive people around common ideas/beliefs and products. A key additive effect is the uniformity to which Internet participants can and do judge products. With a few keyboard clicks, a customer can find out if a product is a scam or not, how highly it is rated in independent studies and which products are the “top” ones in their segment. Additionally they can introduce other product considerations like “is it eco-friendly?” or “Is it Made in the USA?”
Now, what if Social Media was able to “corral” users with specifically indicated preferences from specifically indicated socio-economic profiles and drive them around products that met and exceeded their expectations? This would greatly reduce the carpet bombing of traditional marketing allowing a marketing team to communicate to self-elected individuals who can already understand and appreciate their products.
Here at Bash Foo, it is becoming more and more apparent that Social Media can pull together groupings of individuals who can be willingly targeted for product marketing campaigns. Instead of being Spammed with products you don’t appreciate, just imagine having product news, updates and coupons coming your way in the same fashion an RSS feed does. You sign up, you get the goods.
What are your thoughts? Do you have a product that needs a gaggle of self-identified, interested customers who can and will buy your product?? Or, are you just a consumer who wants to “shape” the product offerings you view so that you have more time to focus on other things in life like family, entertainment, long walks on the beach??
I am interested in your comments, and look forward to hearing from you!
