This blog post has stemmed from the interesting discussion that my earlier post generated ‘Is advertising on Facebook called Social Media Marketing?” Mostly all agreed that while advertising on Facebook helped the marketer focus to the right target audience, it was still advertising.
Social Media Marketing on the other hand implicitly calls for user participation and building dialogue. Both of which remain absent with Facebook advertising form of communication. To me if there is one thing that segregates social media from others is the use of word ‘Audience’.
There is no audience in Social Media Marketing. Period.
Audience is to whom you announce any activity
Audience is to whom you talk to
Audience is to whom you have a monologue with
Audience is to whom you deliver your message to
Audience is to whom you drive your point across
It is not about semantics. It is about psychology of a marketer. Most traditional media have allowed marketer to control the message that is going out on his brand. The brand manager decides on the communication creative, the medium it will be transmitted it and in a lot of many ways anticipate how it’s audience will react to it.
In social media, he or she will only be able to manage their communication. They will have to evolve it with the consumers of that group. There will be two way communication right from the beginning allowing a sense of co-creation which will ultimately lead to higher sales and profits. There will be no messages to deliver or announce but points to discuss with users.
Social Media Marketing in a lot of ways will redefine some of the conventional marketing wisdom. The consumer insighting process will play a far more critical role in developing brand communication. Just as you need content in your blog, to generate hits to it, there will be lot of substance required to hold conversation with people and attract them towards the brand.
Comments
Tags: audience, Facebook, listening, monologue, Social Media, Traditional Media, Windchimes Comm
Isn’t Audience within Social Media a self-creating/regulating entity which you -as a company- simply cannot form but is co-created?
Yes it is!! The idea is not to treat them as audience the way you would when using traditional media!!!
Nimesh, there appears a paradigm shift in the marketers’ habit of talking-with rather than talking-to their customer to building a close relationship. SMM asserts commitment to establish and maintain good communication with customer. At the end of the day it is still a four letter word –TALK.
Does it reflect the changing mindset and technology tools driving the phenomenon?
Yes – there is a mindset changing setting in. But it’s a process. I wouldn’t say that it has been completely accepted by all marketers – Talking with still has a long way to go
[…] a sort of conditioning that as happened to us over the years as the media we used facilitated only one way communication. With social media increasing its presence, we will have to get used to receiving feedback. Our […]
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