Live From DMDNY: An Uncomfortable Conversation

Direct marketers are facing a dialog that may cause them to squirm in their seats. With the rise of social networks, they are increasingly having to listen to, and cede control of their messaging to, consumers.

For many DMers, a frank talk about the birds and the bees would be easier, and less disquieting.

It's easy to understand why a direct marketer would be afraid of social networks. The idea of an arena in which consumers generate content, and marketers at best react, is anathema to traditional practices.

But these networks, which include online communities such as YouTube, MySpace, corporate blogs and unaffiliated blogs and Web sites may provide the first real test of whether the lip service marketers have been paying to the idea that "the customer is king" is just that — lip service.

Many of these fears have real roots: A single, well-crafted slam on a product or service, justified or not, can take on a life of its own. And reacting poorly to such attacks will only add fuel to the fire.

But there is upside. As speakers on a DMDNY panel noted, the Web is increasingly becoming an important source of product and service information. In fact, Generation Y now spends more time online than it does watching television. As Leslie Reiser, director of worldwide interactive marketing for IBM noted, "The sweet spot for social media is 30 and [younger]."

But when these young consumers are online, and interacting with a marketer's brand, they're not being passive. "The social customers want a say, want to know when something is wrong, want to help shape things, don't want to talk to salesperson, want to buy on their schedule and want to tell you when you are screwing up," said Aaron Kahlow, managing director of BusinessOnLine.

These tendencies make marketers — even those that want to use social networks as a marketing tool — wary of entering the arena. To those feeling they don't have the right tools in place, Rebecca Lieb, editor in chief of The Click Z Network, has a very simple suggestion: "People are talking about you. If you are not listening, it's good place to start."

Greg Verdino, chief strategy officer of Crayon LLC, agreed, saying that marketers have all of the core skills they need to do social media correctly. "But we also have giant bag of bad habits," he cautioned. "We used to be able to proclaim from on high. People don't want to be told what to do anymore. We can't just barge our way into a conversation. It has to be a two-way dialog."

The discomfort, for marketers, doesn't end there. Social networks don't lend themselves to traditional response-rate-and-sales metrics. Marketers looking to take advantage of these online communities will need to look at a new set of key performance indicators, many of which are either speculative or not yet available.

Some first steps might include basic blog or online video measurements, said Jennifer Juckett, VP of marketing and business development at vMix Media Inc. In addition to hits or clickthroughs, these could also include the number of points of interaction and engagement levels, she added.

Verdino mentioned an early initiative done by Cingular on YouTube. "There were no ads, and no branded content," he said. "It was a celebration of the community that creates and distributes music videos through YouTube. We know how many people watched the video, and how many clicked through to Cinngular.com — seven million [clicks] from 35 million viewers."

The campaign sold a hefty number of ringtones — somewhere in the mid-six-figures — to "an audience that pirates ring tones," Verdino said.

The panel also discussed how to resolve any missteps that might occur within the more consumer-powered Web. "Admit to them, apologize and sound real," Kahlow said, adding that apologies should not sound like they were written by a corporate public relations department.

Which is not to say that marketers shouldn't take an active role in online forums. Yes, bloggers from a firm should disclose that they represent the company. And their postings should be informative, or anecdotal, and not focus on product or service pitches, Juckett said.

That said, it's okay to have a distinct point of view, Reiser said. "If you are the resident expert, you are entitled to an opinion."