The Immediacy and Power of Social Media

We are increasingly hearing about the effect of social media on society. The Iranian elections and their aftermath, have just brought into sharp focus the immediacy of the mobile phone and the power of social media.

The big news agencies such as Sky, Fox, CNN, and the BBC have all been relying upon the ordinary people inside Iran creating reports and filming breaking news events on mobile phones.

The old media model of third party interpretation and “tell me what you think” has been shaken to its foundations by this new media model of immediacy and “this is what we filmed, make your own mind up.”

Twitter and YouTube have been the big beneficiaries of this. The power has been transferred into the hands of people in the street creating their own reports, albeit more subjectively than some of the main news media would have broadcast .

This social media immediacy and subjectivity transfers into everyday life things such as football transfers, opinions on politics, products used and liked, gossip, and humour. In fact all the things that interest and affect consumers from all walks of life and ethnic groups. Social media not only challenges conventional media but also the legitimacy of conventional market research.

Tuning in and listening, really listening, to these people is a much more accurate gauge of what people think and how they behave. Engaging in a dialogue with them through their chosen means of communication can be a much more insightful and ultimately profitable experience for the marketer.

Talking Appropriately and Directly to a Social Media Audience

It means that through social media, the marketer can go direct to the consumer without intermediary advertising media. Take for example, beinggirl.com from P&G. Directors of Intelligent Positioning have had direct experience of working on this site at its inception in Asia.

They know that ads speaking directly to a thirteen year old girl are difficult to construct in the language of a young girl, in different cultures, without sounding patronising and parental. So the P&G strategy was to use social media by creating a site, beinggirl.com that produced an indirect approach to feminine health care. The site talks about what it is like being a thirteen year old girl and discussing issues involving parents, relationships, music, fashion, health etc. It connects in subtle ways and P&G responds to the feedback.

P&G have found that talking about people’s problems allows them to talk with more authority about helping to find solutions.

Has it worked? Well, P&G say that it is, by dollar criteria, four times more effective than traditional advertising.

Moving from teenage girls to a financial audience, Bloomberg have devised a new marketing strategy that communicates through the screen of the mobile phone. Why? Well, to people who want to be informed on the gyrations of the financial market and news that could affect investments from hundreds to trillions of dollars, it is more effective to communicate through a tool that is with you all the time, and is more immediate and discrete for people on the move than a TV screen or computer.

Some of the world’s largest companies are seeing social media as the way to more immediate and effective dialogue with consumers. Learning directly about their behaviour and actions.

Events in Iran have brought a focus to this.

Author – Garry Titterton, CEO IP-SEO

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under New Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.