Social Media: Out of Control, on Target, and Changing the Rules

Consumer marketers who fail to invest in and experiment with social media now might find difficulty in catching up with the competition later, especially as competitors increase their understanding of this new marketing opportunity and establish consumer relationships.

Loosely defined as publishing built on consumer-generated content and high levels of author-reader interaction, social media provide marketers with ways to tap into customer DNA, those deep-rooted behaviors that characterize customers. Proactive marketers capitalize on customer DNA by observing it, researching it and acting on it.

Digital consumers increasingly have been controlling their consumption of media. Some examples of consumer-controlled media include:

Search: Every Google query is an example of a consumer directing media content.

DVRs: TiVo and other models give consumers tools that enable them to selectively ignore media content.

RSS feeds, podcasts, iPods: Consumers choose when, where, and which media to consume.

MySpace, Xanga, YouTube: Consumers create and direct the media.

Social media take consumer-controlled media to the next level by infusing interactivity and enabling consumers not only to control the media but also to create it. At the very least, every advertiser and marketer ought to know a few of the new rules and realities that social media have helped create, some of which go more against the grain of textbook marketing strategy than others:

New perspectives will emerge: Previously unexpressed consumer behaviors and beliefs are now commonly shared.

Your best (and worst) customers are talking: Social media amplify consumer actions/behaviors, generating word of mouth en masse.

The truth is out there: Innovative insights often lie right under marketers’ noses; some pointed research can help realign an understanding of what to look for.

The consumer is in control: Some brand control must be relinquished

Most marketers hesitate to relinquish control and loosen the brand reins, but that’s a price of admission for a marketer trying to capitalize on social media. With the entire media landscape becoming more consumer-driven, marketers must embrace the new realities if they hope to find success.

These successes, though, are not without risk. Chevrolet’s recent campaign that allowed customers to create their own television-style advertisements, for example, achieved wildly controversial results. Some customers created derogatory ads about the Tahoe’s gas mileage, its drivers’ inferiority complexes, and so on, then released their creations to the world through viral video services such as YouTube, reaching thousands of people with distinctly off-brand messaging. In the past, brand managers or agencies might have been fired for such an event, but this is part of the new social-media reality.

So why try social media? Plenty of examples exist where the good outweighs the bad, where consumers engage in meaningful interactions with a brand at levels previously unattainable. The FX program “Nip/Tuck,” for example, has made creating controversy its business. Despite strong opinions about the show’s content, marketers should applaud FX’s decision to showcase its anonymous villain on a MySpace page. Last fall, the Carver released his own page at www.myspace.com/thecarver.

The puppeteers at FX had scripted this scenario for months. Each new episode strengthened loyal viewers’ desire to know the identity of the anonymous villain who thinks “beauty is a curse on the world” and attacks people who have had plastic surgery. Instead of plugging the niptuck.com URL in advertisements during the program, FX plugged the Carver’s MySpace page, inviting viewers to visit, find out more, and receive clues about the Carver’s identity. This proved quite effective for the show, which made great strides in creating an interactive experience for consumers.

Today, the Carver’s MySpace page commands 111,639 friends and has had nearly 75,000 comments posted. And that’s counting only MySpace members; random visitors are not counted. Consumers have connected with this show in a big way and continue to connect long into the off-season. Handing over some content control to consumers did result in some derogatory postings, but overall the page seems to have been a great success for FX.

Other brands are finding success with social media too. Our client Maybelline’s WhatIsPure.com experience, promoted heavily on social-media sites, invites consumers not only to participate in timely polls that are relevant to a young female audience but also to create their own polls. Again, by promoting ideas and consumer control instead of push-messaging about its product, Maybelline draws consumers into a brand experience and lets them shape it. Consumers leave a little piece of themselves within this branded experience and share it with others.

Although social media require more-innovative thinking than a simple media buy to achieve success, some marketers are creating targeted, cost-effective, meaningful consumer connections through social media. Next time, we’ll look closer at how marketers can foster these meaningful connections with consumers and discuss three other mentality shifts that can create success within social media.

Dave Friedman is president of the central region for Seattle-based interactive services firm Avenue A | Razorfish and a monthly contributor to CHIEF MARKETER. Contact him at [email protected].