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"Nothing in those files makes their sacrifice worthwhile. You have to let go. We're professionals, when an operation goes bad, we tie it oft."
- Ward Abbott (Brian Cox)
- The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
The world of new media - widgets and social applications - looks like a beautiful marketing communications hunting ground.
It's like shooting fish in a barrel.
Imagine people flock to Web 2.0 locations where they blog.
They upload/download audios/videos of specific interest to them.
They congregate at business/special interest web sites to gain information and be entertained.
They twitter.
They gather daily/nightly in online communities to exchange information, news and just hang out.
They leave a digital fingerprint of who they are, who/what they like/don't like, what they do/don't do, where they go/don't go and when they do all this stuff.
As Jason Bourne noted, "It's easy. She's standing right next to you. "
Once you're on the web nothing is private for them... or you.
The profile can be so finite you can pick any prospective customer out of the mob and hit him/her with your message with little or no collateral damage.
It's no wonder companies of all shapes, sizes, product/service categories will drop an estimated $1.4 billion on social media communications this year.
Social Spending
By 2012 the investment should double.
There are billions of reasons for the interest beyond being the most direct means of reaching most likely customers.
It's also the most undiluted, most direct and most cost-effective means of learning about customers -business and consumer.
The challenge for public relations professionals and their management is really understanding what social media is, how it works/interacts, which avenue(s) do you use, how do you measure social media results... and what are the downsides.
Social media:
* provides an unfiltered view of consumer perceptions so firms can see what will impact the future of their business
* word-of-mouth is having a tremendous control over perception and acceptance
* user community sites and blogs provide valuable (if studied analytically rather than emotionally) user experience feedback
* can generate effective viral campaigns for products
* is an arena dominated (by a...