Social Media river also flows beneath the surface.

By Rajesh on February 16, 2009

Social media has unquestioned linkages with user generated content, customers speaking with each other & buzz; each of these form an important part of the campaign for any brand engaging in social media marketing.
Many of us, however, make the mistake of judging/ reviewing a brand programme merely on the ‘visible’ elements. Buzz is just one of the desired outcomes. Insights drawn from analysing consumer behaviour/ perception towards our brands/ competition on blogs, social networks could be another.
We often seem to miss out on a critical part of why brands adopted/ or needed to adopt social media. Remember, it was to create direct channels of communication with consumers/ prospects and other key stakeholders for feedback, redressal and insights.
As a programme moves into a sustained two-way relationship between the consumer and brand, towards identifying consumer evangelists and towards co-creation of products, a lot of conversations do move below the surface – emails, telecons and face-to-face. The world doesn’t see them, doesn’t mean they are not there.Instead, to me, they are signs of a matured programme.
An association has been established; new conversations will continue to get seeded, but many have now reached a new depth.
Your thoughts?

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  • Chaitanya : Thanks much :). Keep writing.
  • Hi Rajesh,
    I love this article it is very helpful. In the past few years, Social Media and Social Media Marketing have become buzz- words. This is due to the popularity of sites like Face book, Orkut,MySpace, Digg, etc. By social Media can achieve targeted and potential traffic. We can develop an interacting community, facilitate social media marketing or encourage people to link to your website.
  • hmm, i think the judgment comes from the brand's inherent need for measurement.. the 'underground' - mails, GTalk, dm etc cannot be measured as easily as 'buzz'.. it perhaps also has to do with scalability... relatively, buzz is more scalable than individual interactions? (eg. a reply to a user query can be seen by all) ... on a tangent, i'd even say that this need for measurement is just another manifestation of the need for control that brands can't seem to let go of... isn't 'buzz' just marketing communication seeded by brands and hopefully taken up by the crowd.. like i wrote in a post once, a brand doesnt need to be on a soc med site for the buzz to happen there (http://www.manuprasad.com/?p=1317) ... the real deal (i agree with you) is listening, responding, and gathering insights to use it to a brand's advantage...in essence, only when brands stop using soc med in isolation, and integrate it with more parts of the life cycle (eg. design/ redesign based on feedback) will they be able to realise the potential of what can be done...
    but while i agree with most of what you've said, I'm not quite sure of the maturity part.. thats a very subjective thing... depends also on the maturity of the user...
  • Manish: Thanks, I think you 'have' understood the insight I shared. However, social media is evolving each day and each of us is learning, we are all making mistakes on the way, so I can't say that any of us really understands it fully.
    The focus, as you rightly point out, has been in measuring quantities more than impact, but that will change. Quantities might too be important themselves.
    Keep writing.
    Cheers
    Rajesh
  • Manish
    Hi Rajeshh,
    I think i am getting, ur point though i don't believe if i have understood it fully.
    However, from my limited iteration with few clients and few social media practitioners, i feel people have not fathom the intricacies of social media yet.
    There is an over-eagerness to profit from the web 2.0 without giving it due time to prosper. Practitioners are more interested in quantifying the impact of any social media programme, be it twitter updates, social communities, or blogs.
    I think u r right...its more to do with creating direct channel of communication with consumers and stakeholders. However, creativity is the essential part of the game. Thats why everyone grappling with the way to implement it in their communication prgramme.
  • Kartik - Hi, thanks for dropping by.
    Of course, and there is nothing to do with agency/ client. I think you missed the point. I am sharing an insight that social media is not merely what happens on the surface.
    Keep writing.
    Cheers.
    Rajesh
  • The way someone reviews the creativity in a billboard or a print advertisement, social media engagement work is bound to elicit responses that are skin deep. That's hardly a mistake - its more of an opinion on the state of things, from that person's perspective.
    That's quite beside the point as far as the client and the vendor are concerned. I'm wondering why it should bother any social media firm, as long as the client knows and understands the value being delivered?
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