Social Media: Is Social Media Marketing a Predatory Pursuit?
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Written By Noah Mallin | November 19, 2008 | Share This
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The quote du jour today was from Ted McConnell, General Manager of Interactive Marketing at Proctor and Gamble, who said this about Facebook in AdAge:
“I think when we call it ‘consumer-generated media,’ we’re being predatory…Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”
Though the quote seems to have stirred mixed feelings around the blogosphere I think it’s a pretty common initial reaction to the idea of advertising within user-generated content. This is especially true for a company like P & G which is still feeling it’s way online while still spending the bulk of its ad dollars on “traditional” offline media.
Give them credit for seeking to learn though, through such steps as the recent employee swap between P & G and Google. To help indoctrinate their fledgling marketing types in the world of the Internets P & G agreed to a prisoner exchange like marching of employees to the Googleplex and Googlers were parachuted into P & G’s Cincinatti HQ to learn about brand marketing.
Apparently, according to today’s Wall Street Journal (sorry, dead tree only for now so no link), there was a lot of heavy breathing all around as the teams learned about each other’s businesses. To wit:
“For their part P & G employees gasped in surprise during a Tide brand meeting when a Google job-swapper apparently didn’t realize that Tide’s signature orange-color packaging is a key part of the brand’s image.”
Followed by a Googler’s gasp:
“Google’s Ms. Chudy Gasped. ‘This is just like our text ads,’ she said.”
Amidst the gasping and panting I think it’s fair to say that both teams took away some important insight. Google learned a bit more about how old-school marketing and ad folk think (which will help to funnel more money into the coffers at the Googleplex) and P & G learned about online metrics and to not leave Mommy Bloggers out of Salma Hayek’s Pampers pitches. No word yet on whetherthe P & G folks were returned to their point of origin disoriented and fattened by several weeks of Googleteria grazing.
So what to make of McConnell’s feelings about Facebook?
I asked our Social Media Team what they thought, and they asked me to Tweet them and maybe message them on Facebook. Having done that, the consensus seemed to be that McConnell is far too narrow in his definition of media.
Nevertheless McConnell’s underlying point can be a valid one – particularly on Facebook. Users are downright hostile if they feel like they are greeting messaged to or that a commercial message is encroaching on their social interactions.
On the other hand people are willing to choose to be a “Fan” of all kinds of things on Facebook, including products. I have a Facebook friend who recently became a “Fan” of cotton, for crying out loud. There are also plenty of apps that have been created to further a commercial purpose on Facebook and some of them do have potential provided users see them as being integrated into their personal interactions.
The bottom line is to think out of the box when interacting on social media sites. For instance The Chicago Tribune has one of my favorite Twitter feeds at @ColonelTribune. The Colonel gently shills by pointing to interesting articles in the Tribune with a wry sense of humor. It feels like an interaction rather than Twitspam and the occasional posting without a link and @ response confirms that a human is behind the curtain.
As more and more old school marketers jump into the world of social media marketing, the objections and fears that McConnell expressed are going to increase. It’s important to recognize the underlying truth and also the fallacy of the predator/prey viewpont to social media marketing especially if, like Google, you want to create a productive place for big brands to learn some new wrinkles. It’s important to recognize the real basis for these concerns as well as how to address them with social media marketing especially if, like Google, you want to create a productive place for big brands to learn some new marketing wrinkles.
Topics: Advertising: Online, Blogging, ECommerce, Facebook, Google, Social Media |
The bigger problems are already evident and will always exist, really, as with anything that gets big… It is impossible to weed out all the bad stuff but at the end of the day there is so much potential with social that all the bigger brands are going to be jumping in as will traditional media.
Anywhere you look, you can see glimpses of it… Change is good. 2009 will be a year of the most change across the web as of late… approx 5-8 yrs worth of.
Best,
Mike
http://www.wannadevelop.com/