I am working with Five By Five on this topic right now and there are interesting viewpoints and lessons to be learned. Over contrived and intrusive are always a problem. For example, brands selling to young consumers are now realizing the impossibility of having “controlled conversations” with a fast moving and hard to reach audience that came of age in the post Web 2.0 landscape. Social Media Optimization (SMO) only works for those who thoroughly understand the rapidly changing social media universe and who are willing to make their approach in a compelling but “softly softly” way that won’t cause the recipient of a marketing message to throw the switch on possible dialogue with the brand. Will K come across as 'real' or as a contrived and artificial offering? One thing is for sure - brand messages need to be specifically optimised for consumption within social media. On the one hand this can be achieved by ensuring web site content is easily linkable and that signposts to their content are visible across the social media landscape. On the other hand it is far more effective perhaps to ensure that the message itself is transportable and therefore easily spread.
On a strategic level SMO reflects a fundamental watershed moment in marketing. It personifies the shift in power from marketer to audience. It’s all about ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’. In other words accepting that the conversation cannot be controlled by brands, and that it will become increasingly difficult from now on to simply herd consumers to your web site. With an audience that not only chooses it’s own media path but also authors it’s own media content the brand must have something interesting or relevant to say or else it will be ignored. If there was ever a pivotal moment when the advertising weary and the brand cynical are in control and there is an urgent need for true innovation and originality from marketers it is now. Want to know more? Call Steve Sponder at Five By Five and he'll talk you through it....tel: +44 (0)23 8082 8525
