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September 26, 2005
Social media's impact on marketing
How should marketers leverage social media such as blogs, social networking sites, collaboration tools and syndication feeds?
The BlogOn Social Media Summit in New York on October 17-18 aims to answers these questions. Seth will keynote. I'll be on a panel entitled "What You Don't Hear Can Hurt You: Listening to the Blogosphere."
Besides the infamous Kryptonite example, what would you say are the best examples of:
1) Organizations that listen closely to the blogosphere and adapt
2) Organizations that don't listen and have paid the price
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An excellent set of questions from Jacki over at Church of The Customer... Besides the infamous Kryptonite example, what would you say are the best examples of: 1) Organizations that listen closely to the blogosphere and adapt 2) Organizations that don... [Read More]
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In the past months, as I've learned more about the actual facts of the Kryptonite case, I've stopped using it as a case study. Even Shel Israel had recently backed away from it as an example (see his blog).
I think the reality of this story is not about what Kryptonite did or didn't do, from a strictly "reacting to the consumer" standpoint. I think this story has more to do with a) how the blogosphere can get things wrong and/or twist things out of control, and b) how companies should communicate with the blogosphere.
We all like to believe that the blogosphere is only the champions of truth and justice. But the reality is that the blogosphere can get things wrong as well.
To continue this thought stream...
Kryptonite, while *communicated* poorly with the blogosphere, they had a pretty amazing solution in place within about a week. A solution that cost them literally millions and addressed an industry wide problem. Companies like MasterLock were vastly slower to react with a solution of their own, and when they did, the solution was nowhere near as impressive or consumer friendly. Yet, the blogosphere hasn't really paid any attention to that.
I think for those companies already on the cutting edge of working with, understanding and interacting with the blogosphere, the question now starts to become:
How do we react when the blogosphere gets it wrong?
The answer to that is more than "communicate better/more".
Jake - I have to agree. There is an overwhelming tendency for the blogosphere to a. blow it's own trumpet when its right and ignore moments when its horribly wrong and b. forget to compliment organisations who manage to solve issues, however awkwardly. We tend to forget how difficult it is for large corporates to adapt to the intrinsic power of social media, and instead of assisting we get very accusatory.
So I would extend your question with, "what responsibility does the predominantly techie blogosphere have towards educating the rest of the world as how best to communicate in the conversational market".
Jackie, as fr your request, I have a pretty positive story I picked up from Dave Taylor at http://www.tomorrowconnecting.biz/2005/09/you-go-hugo/ - it's a nice example of how a seemingly insignificant post in the depths of cyberspace, coupled with a heartfelt response, can result in some fantastic brand leverage and exposure.
