NewCommForum: Marketers need to Shut Up, Listen and Engage

Mar
9

NewCommForum: Marketers need to Shut Up, Listen and Engage

One of the common themes of the New Communications Forum 2007 was for marketers to Shut up, Listen and Engage. Companies, brands and marketers no longer have full control of the messages they are sending to consumers; and now must embrace social media. One of the main takeaways that hit home for me is that consumers do not want to be marketed to; rather, they want to be communicated with. Social media is a channel that can make that happen. In one of the sessions, “Creating a Complete Social Media Strategy”, facilitated by John Bell of Ogilvy, he states that “consumers trust the people next to us instead of the authority”. The authority he is talking about is corporate websites that push their marketing messages in a one-way communication form.

However, it doesn’t make sense for marketers to just create a blogs/wikis/social networks for the propose of just creating blogs/wikis/social networks. There has to be a calculated strategy behind the planning that supports the overall goals of the business. Otherwise, it will fail.

On a side note, and during a lunchtime keynote, one of the panelists (I can’t remember who he was) predicted that Wikis will die in 2008. I have a different opinion in that Wikis will probably replace blogs sometime in the distant future.

Technorati Tags: newcommforum, social media, social media strategy, john bell

Author: Michael Brito

Michael Brito is a Vice President of Social Media at Edelman Digital. All thoughts and opinions on this blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer or clients; neither past or present. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or subscribe to this blog.

Brendon Swanson

I can't say that I believe that Wiki's will take over anything. If you refer to Internet history, you'll see that nothing has taken the place of any other entity in any sort of entirety. If those who said CSS would take over all forms of web design structure have been proven wrong. Blogs have not taken over static web sites, etc. There will always be a significant number of "alternative" entities that will offset the eclipse by new media, methods or other objects.

For social media, it is still much like design for the web. There are standards but not all follow and will not unless there is some sort of lawful mandate, which is virtually an impossibility. Therefore, when the majority of marketers fall back and begin to operate on a reactive charge rather than a proactive charge, you will see a small group of unethical and irritating marketers plunge forward with distracting and forceful messages defeating the work of the majority in the solid interest of their own. Selfishness and greed will always be the downfall of marketers in media.

Jason Yee

Jasmine - I would say that it depends on the organization. I, personally think that the Interactive team should own it, however, there needs to be some collaboration between PR, the SEO team as well.

Daniel R. - you are absolutely right. Social Media makes the brand more personal and although customers do have more control, they don't have total control because we, as marketers, can participate in the conversation.

Daniel R

Jasmine,

Who owns it internally? On the client side? That's a good question. I've seen it all over the place. A better guess is that whoever owns "Social Media Strategy" will be the person who usually handles online Word-of-Mouth activities. The term WOM is something folks are more comfortable with than "Social Media"

Michael,

Thanks for bringing up that conference. Completely forgot about it.

You wrote: "Companies, brands and marketers no longer have full control of the messages they are sending to consumers; and now must embrace social media. "

I'd emphasize that we have to manage the branding, messaging and perception. You must manage it well, without backfiring from heavily interfering but you cannot let things get out of hand, like what what happened with the Acer/Vista Campaign on Digg. THat's what I call the "OMG-WTF Crowd":
http://www.emergence-media.com/2007/01/social-m...

I think marketing a company is becoming ever more like being a real human person, you build your reputation by your actions and interactions with people, but you cannot control the dirty, distorted gossip people say about you.

Michael Brito

lol...in the Portland airport right now. I have been here since Monday. Im up here a couple of times a quarter so maybe next time.

Michael

Sandra

Nope. I'm up in Oregon. Come visit sometime. :) sdf

Michael

Hi Sandra - yes, it's too bad we didn't meet. Are you at the Santa Clara offices?

Sandra

Hi Mike,

I did ask a question during David's keynote...it's too bad we didn't meet in person. I agree with you though, that the keynotes were good, and it was great to meet other communicators.

Jasmine

This conference seems to me like a PR thing....so. my question is...internally, who really owns social media marketing?

Marc Madison

The conference was great. I learned so much from all the speakers. The only thing I wasn't to happy about was the post "strategy" sessions.

In my opinion, John Bell had the best presentation. I like his the term he uses to define social media - digital influence.

Michael Brito

Hi Sandra. Yes, I agree that it wasn’t meaty enough. There were several duplicate topics in the sessions I attended; and they weren’t even part of the same track. The keynotes are where I gained the most insight. I met some really good contacts as well.

I am currently (at this precise moment) attending the post conference workshop, “How to Map Your Social Media Strategy” and it is not what I expected at all. Well, at least I met a few more contacts….a couple hundred dollars later.

Did you ask a question during the Dave Weinberger’s keynote on Thursday morning?

Sandra

Wikis won't die. Too distributed, useful, and powerful. I do think they could use an administrator to help minimize duplicates (that is...pages that cover the same topic, but have a slightly different title).

How useful did you find the conference? I thought it was great to meet people, but I didn't feel it was meaty enough.