Where social meets media
One of the highlights for me of the social media event that we hosted together with Genius Rocket and Kickapps (5 May at the Harvard Club, New York) was meeting so many people whom I’d only connected with previously through Twitter. It was great to put real names to Twitter names, and faces to tweets – and that in itself goes a long way to defining what social media is all about.
It was a huge success, with lots of positive feedback - so much so, that we’re thinking about doing something similar again. Thanks very much to all the people who came along – around 100 people in total, from client companies, consultants and agencies, to all new media luminaries, visionaries and thought leaders.
There were lots of interesting issues raised both by the presentations (click to view from eModeration , GeniusRocket, and Kickapps ) and discussions afterwards, but there were one or two themes that emerged.
Firstly, how to cope with reduced, or tighter controlled budgets. There is a concern that by some companies, social media is simply seen as a cheaper alternative to traditional media. And of course, that’s not the case at all. Social media can have better value in terms of return, but only if the implementation is well-thought through, and well-resourced. It’s not enough any more to replicate the old ways of advertising, online. If this is a topic that interests you, you might be interested in our blog examining metrics of social media measurement and ROI .
Secondly, is this obsession with social media going to go away? Is it just a phase, a fad that will dwindle and die out once people get bored? I think most of us are in agreement that it won’t – or at least, those social media utilities and communities that create something useful will stick around. There is a whole generation growing up now that has never known an unconnected world and can’t imaging life without technology-enabled conversation.
There will undoubtedly be new platforms, and new technologies – but the principle of sharing information, conversing with like minded people and directly with brands is here to stay.
And finally – the big one. How do you create a sense of community within a brand marketing campaign? If you’re creating a long-term campaign, then of course you have more options open to you: creating bespoke communities, or virtual worlds, for example; or even complete projects, such as Red Bull’s Music Academy . But if you’re creating a shorter campaign for a brand, creating a sense of community can be harder.
My favourite current example, which I shared at the social media lunch, is the brilliant ‘Compare the Market / Compare the Meerkat’ campaign, created by VCCP for the
I think that, broadly speaking, there are two ways to achieve community within a brand campaign. One is to create an advertising campaign that is the community (like Cesar’s ‘I Promise’ campaign that sees pet owners making promises to their pets within a Cesar site); and the other is to create community around the campaign, such as the comparethemarket/meerkat example above.
But the key to success whichever route you take is to be prepared to let go of your brand a little. Community is, in essence, about handing over control to consumers, and that can be scary for brand owners. Just creating a fan site isn’t enough; brands have to engage their users in conversations, by going to where those conversations are already taking place - whether that’s on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, in forums or at a real live event – and then draw them back to where you want them to end up. We’ve written more on the principles of community (applied generally) here..
It’s a huge subject, and one that I’m sure we’ll keep coming back to. I’d be really interested to hear your views on companies that do it well (or even those that do it badly!).
In the meantime, many of those who came to the lunch asked for links to our white papers, which are below:
- Using community and interactive advertising to engage tweens and teens
- How to encourage participation and player loyalty in virtual worlds
- Techniques for creating safer environments for children
- Six Techniques for Safer User Generated Content Campaigns
Many thanks again to all who attended. Do keep in touch and share ideas, thoughts, and views: www.twitter.com/emoderation or www.twitter.com/tlittleton; or on our blog: http://blog.emoderation.com/.
Tamara Littleton
CEO
0 comments:
Post a Comment