Web 2.0 Rule #3: Make your market the star, your brand now plays the supporting role.

Note: This post is part of a current series for B2Bs and B2Cs that explores 10 (essential!) Rules That No Marketer Should Pass The "Web 2.0 Go" Without. All posts in the series are archived here. In this post we illuminate:

Web 2.0 Rule #3: Make your market the star, your brand now plays the supporting role.

In the past, companies worked to connect their brands to target audiences. But with social media, marketers must now work at connecting their audiences to each other--in hopes that those connections yield discussions, recommendations and, most important, new purchases of their brands.

With old media, marketers launched one-way communications and campaigns with clearly delineated start and end dates. But in social media, marketers can hold two-way conversations that don’t have an end date, they keep on going (and going).

Through traditional and broadcast media, marketers had to talk at their audiences, with their brands placed front and center of their messages (so their brands were the stars). But no longer. Because now that social media enables marketers to speak with their audiences, their markets are the stars... with their brands relegated to playing supporting roles.

Switching from star to supporting role is a transition that's far from easy. For some marketers, it's laden with the fear of losing control (or fear of negative feedback). For others, migrating from a broadcasting to a conversational model is a huge learning curve--as many old practices are turned on their head. So what, then, are the key implications when our markets, not our brands, are the stars?

•Meet customers in their environment, instead of requiring them to meet in yours.

First and foremost, brands need to step out from the social media sidelines and into online environments where their customers are actively networking and forming communities around their preferences, passions, professions and ideas. The most successful brands are those that remain relevant by adapting to the changing needs, wants and media preferences of their markets. Your markets are already adapting to these new media, now it's your turn.

•Switch focus from elevating your products, to elevating your markets.

Just as the goal of your social media efforts should be to yield brand ROI (not just "generate buzz"), your social media programs must focus on elevating your market, not just your product. Whether your programs make an everyday task easier, impart information that will help professionals excel at their jobs, provide customers a new channel for solving their support issues or offer one of many other points of value, by elevating your market, you directly elevate the equity of your brand.

•Instead of working to connect target audiences to your brands, work to connect audiences to each another.

People go online seeking connections, information, opinions and recommendations. They’re looking to hold conversations with other like-minded people much more than they are with companies--and they’re definitely not seeking sales messages (they're bombarded with enough sales pitches through other media). So instead of trying to connect target audiences to your brands, implement programs and practices that work to connect audiences to each other--and those will, in turn, enable them to discuss and recommend your brands. Think of ways that you can create and facilitate idea exchanges between your markets, and work to implement programs and tools that benefit their existing communities.

•Stop speaking for your markets--start listening to them speak to you.

Social media gives marketers the ability, in near real time, to identify new markets and brand opportunities, as well as to learn of potential problems and needed improvements. But the Social Web can't give companies any of these benefits if they're not monitoring it. Now that our customers are speaking to us in an open forum, it's time for marketers to talk less and listen much more. And once armed with this information, use it to better serve, support and delight customers and prospects.

As companies well know, our customers have always been the stars--without them our brands can’t shine. But social media pushes marketers to place customers where they've always belonged: at the front and center of all programs, communications and, yes, conversations.

More posts providing insight and direction stemming from this rule:

Want your social media programs to succeed? Focus on your market not your product: find out how here.
Unlike all other media, regular people--not profit-driven companies--fuel the growth of social media. Learn all here
When it comes to new media and your markets--your opinion doesn't matter, theirs does (and always has). Find out more on this important principle right here.

Rule #4 comes your way next...

(Psst! all posts in this series are archived here)

Social Media Tips • Social Media *Extras* • Social Media Training • Contact CK