Social Media is the most trendy phrase in the last 12 months in the Digital Industry, however it did not come alone, it is accompanied by a new set of words, such as engagement, connect, free, interact, consumer, experience, that traditional advertisers like to use on PowerPoint and keynotes, but in reality they are never taken into account at the time of walking the talk.
Going from one extreme to another: Back in the 50s word of mouth was the only channel to get the news out to the consumer, and advertise certain products to create the demand. The product itself was the key component to the positive or negative result of the buzz.
On the other hand with the advent of Radio, TV and a long list of traditional media, we are buying trash, such as exercise apparatus, magic pills to lose 20 Kg in 2 days, useless gadgets, etc. The question is why? And the answer is very simple; Money and Media overpower consumer opinion and product quality.
Nowadays with Social Media, Web 2.0 and New Technologies we are going back to the 50s, because word of mouth is starting to be more powerful than traditional media, and the quality of the product or service have come back to life.
Brands, Advertisers, Publishers and Creative Agencies are facing a completely new paradigm, where the old fashioned world of “money solves everything” is almost obsolete.
Not only basic content is created by the user, but also advertising, recommendations, reviews, video productions, when all combined end up creating some sort of marketing campaign, whether positive or negative, regarding a certain brand or product. This is what I have named “user generated advertising” and Social Media plays a huge role in this new landscape, because it acts as a catalyst and spreads the “message” at the speed of light over the entire Internet community.
If I were a brand I would be very tempted to:
- Invest more money on R&D and create “consumer centred product”
- Make more effort on research and test the products and services “ready” to be launched
- Definitely I would invest to create better online consumer experience
- Manage and be part of the new flow of consumer conversation in the cloud
- Do basic things at a superior level
User experience prevails over 100 features badly executed