Social Media Trends: An Interview
I recently helped lead a discussion of the Atlanta Media Bloggers, a group of
bloggers and aspiring bloggers who meet once a month at a local pizza place in Atlanta. The topic stemmed from an article that I had written for iMedia Connection about social media lessons that EarthLink has learned.
To get a different perspective on social media’s impact, I recently exchanged IMs with iMedia's executive editor, Brad Berens.
Dan Greenfield: What is imediaconnection.com and what unique need does it meet?
Brad Berens: iMedia Connection is a daily email newsletter and website that covers new media (the web, email, mobile games, podcasts, etc.) with a particular interest in how those media affect marketing and advertising. Our readership is largely composed of the marketing folks at brands who work in or with interactive media, and the interactive ad agency folks.
Greenfield: What interesting trends are you seeing in social media?
Berens: Right now, we're in the early stages of a big transition that is paying, or might pay, off what the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto were talking about at the turn of the millennium: markets are conversations. Brands like EarthLink, Microsoft and many others are moving from a univocal "this is the brand voice" model to the many-voiced model.
That’s a big deal because it entails more work on everybody's part. Indeed, if I had to point out one particular trend, it's that as media explodes into more varied channels with more and more and more content getting stuffed into those channels, the citizen who consumes media has to work harder and harder and harder to make sense of the world, and the media creator has to work harder as well.
Greenfield: How are companies adopting to social media?
Berens: Slowly. Some big companies are allowing their employees to blog, but I think that a lot of companies are not sufficiently listening to the conversation that is happening about their brands and products. Increasingly, traditional media properties get many of their leads from blogs, which means that ignoring a blogger with a decent readership can be perilous.
On the creative side, things are happier, I think. Subaru had a student competition for its new campaign. Bazooka gum has a consumer video contest. Honda, a year or two ago, had an impressive "People Who Look Like Their Cars" campaign that took off.
Greenfield: Who is not doing it well?
Berens: Wal-Mart's attempt to rip off MySpace and control the conversation is, I think, not going to work out. The Mazda’s fake auto manufacturer blog was a big mistake. In essence, any time that marketers try to use a new media approach but wrap it up in old style control, it's a time bomb.
Greenfield: Playing off the column from Wired Magazine, what are “wired,” “tired,” and “expired” in the social media world?
Berens: Starting with "expired," the belief that the marketer controls the brand image and that the brand can sit apart from the conversation taking place, hiding up in an ivory tower. If you saw the Diet Coke / Mentos viral video a few weeks back, it was illuminating to see how Coca Cola and Mentos reacted differently to the video. In essence, Mentos completely embraced the video while Coke stuffily responded by saying, "we'd rather have people drink our products." Mentos seemed like the cool brand on the block. Coke lost face. The brand is now in play on multiple fronts.
Under "tired" I'd list all forms of interruptive advertising. Online, that would mean, of course, pop-ups, but also anything with audio that is not user-initiated. The most interesting thing about social media is that there are thousands upon thousands of practitioners out there who create things and then give them away rather than selling them. We've returned to a partial gift economy.
As for "wired," I'd say that the opportunities for marketers and advertisers to sponsor content, bring new content to viewers, brand entertainment and generally help people to achieve their goals... this is just beginning.
Greenfield: how does PR fit into the marketing mix?
Berens: The job of the PR person just got a LOT harder. There is so much more to keep track of now. Technology can help -- free Google alerts, Technorati, etc. -- but it's a tooth-and-nail fight to keep from being merely reactive.
Talented PR people will be in hot demand, I think, as the sheer size of the media river grows and grows and grows. For all media consumers and creators, PR, creative, editorial, users, the real challenge now is to know when to UNPLUG. What to take seriously and what not to take seriously. These are judgment calls, and judgment comes with experience.
Another thing that is interesting -- and this is both a global media thing and a PR thing -- is how time and place shifting will impact everything. Back in the day, back before the internet, if you had a PR gaffe, and I mean something really horrible, you sucked it up dealt with it and, eventually, it was over. But nowadays the indelibility of the internet means that some things never die.
The best thing that people in your role can do is to manage UP, to educate CEOs, CMOs and COOs about how much chatter is going on. The PR folks need to integrate closely with marketing, as closely as they currently do with legal. That's on the internal side.
On the external side, you might enjoy this "how to track your buzz" tutorial that has been picked up by different folks. It's a good indicator of just how much work there is for PR.
Greenfield: Finally, how can marketers successfully navigate in the new world of social media given that many don't know what social media is, let alone how to use it?
Berens: I think to that to call what’s happening now “web 2.0 is just ridiculous. At best, we’re somewhere around web 1.01…The point of all this is that enabling the social media conversation is different than forcing it on people. More people simply WANT information than want to CREATE information. Successful companies will be careful not to get in the way of basic information acquisition, while making the path to engaging the community well-lit and easy to tread.
Greenfield: Thank you for your thoughts.
Berens: Always a pleasure.
-------
My interview with Brad is one of many I plan to do with other opinion makers in upcoming postings. Where I can, I will focus on how social media is blurring the line between traditional marketing and PR -- especially as PR professionals rely less on mainstream media journalists to deliver their message.
Let me get back to you.
Technorati Tags: iMedia Connection; Social Media; Brad Berens; Cluetrain Manifesto; Atlanta Media Bloggers;
To get a different perspective on social media’s impact, I recently exchanged IMs with iMedia's executive editor, Brad Berens.
Dan Greenfield: What is imediaconnection.com and what unique need does it meet?
Brad Berens: iMedia Connection is a daily email newsletter and website that covers new media (the web, email, mobile games, podcasts, etc.) with a particular interest in how those media affect marketing and advertising. Our readership is largely composed of the marketing folks at brands who work in or with interactive media, and the interactive ad agency folks.
Greenfield: What interesting trends are you seeing in social media?
Berens: Right now, we're in the early stages of a big transition that is paying, or might pay, off what the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto were talking about at the turn of the millennium: markets are conversations. Brands like EarthLink, Microsoft and many others are moving from a univocal "this is the brand voice" model to the many-voiced model.
That’s a big deal because it entails more work on everybody's part. Indeed, if I had to point out one particular trend, it's that as media explodes into more varied channels with more and more and more content getting stuffed into those channels, the citizen who consumes media has to work harder and harder and harder to make sense of the world, and the media creator has to work harder as well.
Greenfield: How are companies adopting to social media?
Berens: Slowly. Some big companies are allowing their employees to blog, but I think that a lot of companies are not sufficiently listening to the conversation that is happening about their brands and products. Increasingly, traditional media properties get many of their leads from blogs, which means that ignoring a blogger with a decent readership can be perilous.
On the creative side, things are happier, I think. Subaru had a student competition for its new campaign. Bazooka gum has a consumer video contest. Honda, a year or two ago, had an impressive "People Who Look Like Their Cars" campaign that took off.
Greenfield: Who is not doing it well?
Berens: Wal-Mart's attempt to rip off MySpace and control the conversation is, I think, not going to work out. The Mazda’s fake auto manufacturer blog was a big mistake. In essence, any time that marketers try to use a new media approach but wrap it up in old style control, it's a time bomb.
Greenfield: Playing off the column from Wired Magazine, what are “wired,” “tired,” and “expired” in the social media world?
Berens: Starting with "expired," the belief that the marketer controls the brand image and that the brand can sit apart from the conversation taking place, hiding up in an ivory tower. If you saw the Diet Coke / Mentos viral video a few weeks back, it was illuminating to see how Coca Cola and Mentos reacted differently to the video. In essence, Mentos completely embraced the video while Coke stuffily responded by saying, "we'd rather have people drink our products." Mentos seemed like the cool brand on the block. Coke lost face. The brand is now in play on multiple fronts.
Under "tired" I'd list all forms of interruptive advertising. Online, that would mean, of course, pop-ups, but also anything with audio that is not user-initiated. The most interesting thing about social media is that there are thousands upon thousands of practitioners out there who create things and then give them away rather than selling them. We've returned to a partial gift economy.
As for "wired," I'd say that the opportunities for marketers and advertisers to sponsor content, bring new content to viewers, brand entertainment and generally help people to achieve their goals... this is just beginning.
Greenfield: how does PR fit into the marketing mix?
Berens: The job of the PR person just got a LOT harder. There is so much more to keep track of now. Technology can help -- free Google alerts, Technorati, etc. -- but it's a tooth-and-nail fight to keep from being merely reactive.
Talented PR people will be in hot demand, I think, as the sheer size of the media river grows and grows and grows. For all media consumers and creators, PR, creative, editorial, users, the real challenge now is to know when to UNPLUG. What to take seriously and what not to take seriously. These are judgment calls, and judgment comes with experience.
Another thing that is interesting -- and this is both a global media thing and a PR thing -- is how time and place shifting will impact everything. Back in the day, back before the internet, if you had a PR gaffe, and I mean something really horrible, you sucked it up dealt with it and, eventually, it was over. But nowadays the indelibility of the internet means that some things never die.
The best thing that people in your role can do is to manage UP, to educate CEOs, CMOs and COOs about how much chatter is going on. The PR folks need to integrate closely with marketing, as closely as they currently do with legal. That's on the internal side.
On the external side, you might enjoy this "how to track your buzz" tutorial that has been picked up by different folks. It's a good indicator of just how much work there is for PR.
Greenfield: Finally, how can marketers successfully navigate in the new world of social media given that many don't know what social media is, let alone how to use it?
Berens: I think to that to call what’s happening now “web 2.0 is just ridiculous. At best, we’re somewhere around web 1.01…The point of all this is that enabling the social media conversation is different than forcing it on people. More people simply WANT information than want to CREATE information. Successful companies will be careful not to get in the way of basic information acquisition, while making the path to engaging the community well-lit and easy to tread.
Greenfield: Thank you for your thoughts.
Berens: Always a pleasure.
-------
My interview with Brad is one of many I plan to do with other opinion makers in upcoming postings. Where I can, I will focus on how social media is blurring the line between traditional marketing and PR -- especially as PR professionals rely less on mainstream media journalists to deliver their message.
Let me get back to you.
Technorati Tags: iMedia Connection; Social Media; Brad Berens; Cluetrain Manifesto; Atlanta Media Bloggers;
(Comment this)
http://georgia.forwalmart.com/
I ended-up having a facinating conversation with the head of the Wal-Mart campaign from Edelman (creator of the Working Families For Wal-Mart sites) about blogs, unions, astroturfing, you-name-it. Even got an email response from Edelman himself.
Still, I feel pretty dubious about inadvertently becoming a poster child for Wal-Mart. Was hoping for Italian Vogue. (Comment this)