In a very interesting post about the true costs of using social media effectively and the potential rewards David Armano (at the Harvard business blog) covers some great territory but one point stuck out in particular:
“…Twitter is that the ecosystem it’s a part of, is itself built on people who keep it humming along with not only content, but a seemingly endless stream of third party applications. This phenomenon is not entirely new–it’s been referred to as end-user innovation (innovation by consumers and end users), rather than suppliers.”
It strikes a chord with me because enabling “end-user innovation” is a brand strategy we believe in. Providing a platform and opportunity for people to share what matters to them is a useful contribution to a community.
It’s a lot easier to stay top of mind and build relationships w/audiences and prospects when you’re collaborating on creating something. The key is to make sure the “something” is useful for them. It can be rewarding, an outlet or a stage.
Many non-profits have picked up on this. Even using free resources like the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s Livestrong YouTube channel can be a useful way for audiences to get involved.
Consumer brands that matter to people are picking up on this too. And I guess Dove’s campaign around real beauty can be considered a useful attempt by a multinational to make itself memorable by being useful to a community. Though with the amount of artificially affordable useless crap they create with tiny hands, ship around the world, and then use fear tactics to market to us, it’s unlikely the multinationals of the world would be able to sustain such a strategy. They create too many things we simply don’t need.
So the take-aways are:
- Make something a few people need
- Instead of simply blabbing about it, get people to blab about it for you by earning their respect (even gratitude) by making your marketing as useful as your offering
via Debunking Social Media Myths — Conversation Starter — HarvardBusiness.org.
