When companies globalize and enter foreign markets, a critical success factor that they’ve learned--and many companies have learned it the hard way--is that they must first understand a new region before marketing to the region’s citizens. Otherwise they increase their odds of failure, instead of upping their rates of success.
The exact same principle applies to social media and, more to the point, to The Social Web. After all, The Social Web is not just a new marketing channel, it’s an entirely new “region," given it's a place that boasts such attributes as thriving communities, cultural nuances, a set of rules, common values, accepted practices and a preferred code of conduct.
Web 1.0 truly was a new channel and gave us unprecedented efficiencies for communications, marketing, research, sales, service and support. Google gave us a new way to research stuff, Amazon gave us a new way to conveniently buy stuff and eBay gave us a new way to sell all sorts of stuff. Companies led the way and we were able to connect to the Internet and these company's offerings.
But with Web 2.0, people lead the way and we're able to connect to each another. Because with social media, people now have access to the same media tools as companies, and people, not companies, create and share the majority of content... so it follows that people (not companies) set the rules and fuel the space's growth.
It's not that people no longer need companies in this environment, they just don't need them in the same manner. And instead of being customers of a particular brand or users of a particular technology, people are members of a particular community--and many times they are members of several communities spanning personal and professional interests.
Continue reading "Viewing The Social Web as a new "region"... not just a new marketing channel." »