online marketing

Why social media . . . even if you don’t want to

http://www.building43.com/blogs/2009/09/09/smart-bear-socialmedia/

‘“The days of “have a Web site and advertise” are over. It’s too expensive to be noticed on an Internet that’s already full.

[…]

You have to jump in even if you don’t really understand it’

100% agreed, and this time around it is more cost effective than back in ‘97 when everybody needed a website and there were plenty of unqualified charlatans who would be prepared to create you a static one for a hefty fee.

The Fans Know Best

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204482304574222062946162306.html

“In other words, in their efforts to set up brand communities, companies are missing out on a marketing tool with huge potential, particularly in this weak economy. At a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing programs, a well-designed brand community can be used to conduct market research with very quick turn-around; generate and test ideas for product innovations; deliver prompt and high-quality service to customers with a problem; strengthen the attachments that existing customers feel toward the brand; and increase good publicity through word-of-mouth.”

The Age of the Stream

http://www.steverubel.com/the-age-of-the-stream

“As the age of the stream takes hold, it will force marketers to get more creative about how we break through. It’s unclear if ads will be welcome. If they are, they will need to be brief, useful and funny. Otherwise, they will just get in the way and be ignored.”

I’d contend that a lot of them are already being ignored. It’s over ten years since we first came across ‘banner blindness’ and the predominant response has been to make ads bigger and yet more intrusive.

A bit more creativity needs to go into this. The ease of publishing to the web now means that there are ever more places where ads can be placed, but most people don’t want them.

Dear SN’s: Here’s what brand marketers want

http://www.marty-collins.com/dear-sns-heres-what-brand-marketers-want/

Great post by Marty Collins, head of the social media team for MS Windows, on what she would like to see the major social networks offer her as a marketer.

Nice to see that Microsoft have a distinction between their paid media and earned media teams. It will be interesting to see when the latter are recognised as being equally as important as the former.

Brand vs. Brand Relationship: Let’s Not Confuse Them

http://www.theharteofmarketing.com/2009/08/brand-vs-brand-relationship-lets-not-confuse-them.html

“People tend to identify with a brand (i.e. logo, message, etc.) first and then they relate to it. I think it explains why there are so many fake bags (Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Kate Spade, Hermes, etc.) not to mention other products on the market. It’s not that people relate to the company that owns the brand it’s that the brand (in this case a logo) gives them a perception of inclusion without the sting of the price tag.”

I think this makes an awful lot of sense, and shows that there is a need for traditional branding as well as brand relationship management in contemporary marketing. In many ways I feel that community management is now responsible for the customer retention aspect of traditional marketing (and obviously a lot more than that).