Web 2.0 Rule #8: Social media gives people more control over brand messages... but marketers (still!) ultimately influence what those messages will be.

Note: This post is part of a current series for both 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 #8: Social media gives people more control over brand messages... but marketers (still!) ultimately influence what those messages will be.

The tools of social media are empowering because they give everyone with access to the Web a voice. From corporate professionals to college students, seniors to teens and everyone in-between, people are flocking online and using these new tools to voice their passions, ideas, opinions and, yes, brand experiences.

All of these conversations equate to millions of brand-centric messages--both favorable and unfavorable--circulating across the Web every single day. And these messages are not just shared between two persons, but are amplified across entire communities that have hundreds, thousands or millions of members. Moreover, these messages "live on" since they are permanently indexed by search engines for still more people to view when researching brands. Thus, these messages serve to greatly influence brand perceptions... and while positive buzz can bolster brand awareness and profit, negative word-of-mouth can hurt brand reputations and revenues.

As a result, the level of control that Web 2.0 has transferred to the public at large has rocked marketers' foundations. This shell shock is understandable given that marketers have historically controlled what the message is, who it's heard by and where it's placed. Enter social media and that control is now (poof!) history. 

So it's no surprise that we hear grave concern from marketers over "losing control!" of their brand's message. What is surprising, however, is how few marketers realize the tremendous level of power that they still have.

Marketers, you still hold the greatest level of influence over the messages that the public creates and spreads about your brands. Yes, YOU. The nature of these messages, be they positive or negative, is far more within your control than out of it. Why? Because your company is wholly and fully in control of the quality of its brands, customer care efforts and marketing programs.

Even in an era where customers possess the tools of message creation, marketers still hold the power over the nature of those messages, because they are 100% in control over whether they:

• use social media to engage in conversations with prospective customers or broadcast advertisements and SPAM their online communities.
• ensure their brands live up to the messages they promote, or serve to deceive.
• are transparent in their communications or work to game the system (it's a losing game but it certainly makes for a bunch of bad buzz).
• maintain a dynamic online presence or create static pages across several social networks that are updated only with new press announcements. 
• actively monitor online feedback or ignore it altogether.
• mine the vast amount of freely available market insights that customers are sharing through social media or let their competitors leverage these rich opportunities.
• use unfavorable feedback as a catalyst to improve their brands, or hope it will go away instead of actually fixing the problems.
• set a social media policy and identify online brand spokespersons or lock-down the organization from the Internet and let the conversation and their relevance flow on withOUT them.
• train employees on respectful and compelling ways to use these tools or hire summer interns to "blog good stuff about us!"
• make needed improvements to customer-centric processes or maintain the status quo and increase their risks of negative WOM.

All told, as it pertains to controlling the message and social media, marketers should shift their focus from what has been "lost" to what can be gained now that their messages can be spread further, faster and with more credibility since it comes from the public. Yes, you want those messages to be positive but that's an area you can absolutely influence through exemplary products, promotions and experiences.

And isn't it nice to know you're still in control?

More posts providing insight and direction stemming from this rule:

• Find out the whole story regarding "online influencers" (and how much internal influence social media gives marketers) right here.
• Learn the many social media ironies and how you can use them to succeed--right here.
• Learn the full story on the "New Transparency" in Web 2.0 right here.

Rule #9 comes your way next....

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

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Comments

[Alan Wolk]

The brands that fear losing control are usually the ones who also fear change, even if that change is positive: they don't want to give up control, they don't want to hear anything negative, yet they don't want to change their behavior in any way to ensure that their consumers feel listened to and/or that the feedback they get becomes more positive.

It's a vicious cycle sort of reminiscent of people who keep searching for a magic pill to cure their addiction or obesity - having to do any work on their end is clearly out of the picture

[Michael Leis]

Adding to Alan's point, it's about gradual investment as well. What makes the magic pill analogy so bitter is that it's simply not sound communications investing.

A logistics manager wouldn't wait until the warehouse was so full of boxes they had no choice but to ship the products. No CFO would keep all the brand's money in piles in his office until he had to go to the bank. But somehow, this approach is rewarded in communications departments.

Good strategy in social / distributed communications channels means incremental, iterative investment.