Right now all of Marketing is hip-deep in the assimilation of Social Media principles.
While there will be laggards, companies of all sizes are thinking about blogging and microblogging … They are reconsidering budgets to emphasize content production … They are at the very least starting to listen intently to the voices that discuss their brand; they are investing in monitoring tools and discussing techniques for engagement.
With all this hubbub, many marketers are wondering about what the “loss of control” will mean to their company, and even to their own employment. How heavily should they invest in this Social Media stuff?
Meanwhile, some have argued, pretty convincingly, that the volume of chatter about Social Media has risen a li’l too quickly. The carpetbaggers are coming to town.
So on the one hand: huge pressure to conform to the Wisdom of Crowds. On the other hand: maybe all this new-agey stuff about the loss-of-control is getting out of control?
When this storm has finished wreaking its havoc, what will be left? Will there still be a PR industry? Will we still produce professional thirty-second tv commercials? Will we still have telemarketers and direct mail and email marketing campaigns?
Yes, Virginia, there will be a job in Marketing.
Humanization – customization – adaptation. These are the watchwords for the future.
The faceless corporation will be “humanized” – that’s what blogging, tweeting, etc., are engendering. Consumers will become as loyal to a brand’s employees as they had been to its excellent products.
Tomorrow’s marketers will embrace human2human interactions as a means to communicate the good/bad about their brand. This humanization process will create goodwill that attracts new buyers and will comfort the loyalists when stuff goes awry. In fact, those loyalists will become the brand’s staunchest defenders.
“Customization” – it’s all about giving the people EXACTLY what they want: each one of ‘em. In a globalized commercial society, plain folks have an earnest desire to be respected for their individuality.
So you’ll still send an email blast, but rather than being mass-produced, it will be mass-customized, to meet the predetermined, opt-in preferences of the consumer targets. Some folks will only want to hear from the brand if the communique comes with a coupon; some will want to hear about latest products, etc.
“Adaptation” – Social Media and other technology innovations are going to force those traditional marketing tools and techniques to change; ironically, more and more marketing activities will migrate online, to support more effective humanization and customization.
This is happening already. For example, advertisers are seriously researching ways to ensure that their 30–second commercials still have impact when viewed in fast-forward mode (i.e., on digital video recorder like Tivo).
I’m no futurist, but I play one in the blogosphere. And while we’re engaged in the current upheaval, I see nothing but opportunity for tomorrow’s marketers.
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I can not predict the future (if I could my investment portfolio would be worth more), I just wanted to thank you for this column, both for your thoughts and words as well as all of the links you provide to other articles that I somehow seemed to have missed. Consider me a new subscriber.
I love the “control” objection.
Not really. I’m just saying that.
Socially interactive media haven’t just shifted control of the narrative, the message, the brand: They have shattered the illusion of control.
Building a brand is like raising a child (though a tiny bit less stressful). You nurture it, you inform it, and you send it out into the world where lots of things — good and bad — can happen to it.
Thanks for the refreshing post Todd. I always appreciate writers that can speak glowingly about the positive changes happening in marketing and PR yet not go over the edge of declaring the “death” of something.
Very insightful as always Todd. I just had an eight hour planning session with a client yesterday and our conversation followed the path you’ve articulated, particularly humanization and customization becoming very important. The real issue becomes how quickly a business can adapt their business operation to function in this manner. While my client was nodding in agreement, I could see the “how are we going to pull this off” thoughts running in the back of their minds.
By the way we cannot know about the future but present… i think Social Media is really changing the marketing strategy.
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