Did you know that today 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations and only 14% trust advertisements? These facts are included in the recently updated and even more awesome video by Erik Qualman here. These facts are according to the latest Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 Internet consumers from 50 countries, and Larry Weber in “Marketing to the Social Web,” respectively.
These facts also support the claim that social media isn’t a fad; rather, that it reflects fundamental shifts in the way people communicate. And the way marketing initiatives must be deployed. It used to be that marketers delivered advertising messages to consumers and tried to persuade them to buy. This was the top-down approach. Then the consumer became empowered (by the leveling and disintermediation of the internet) and s/he began to actively search online to learn about products and services before choosing what to purchase, and from whom to purchase the desired goods and services. The influences along the path to purchase multiplied. Marketers started to lose control.
Qualman goes further and suggests “we will no longer search for products and services, they will find us via social media.” The marketer’s goal is no longer to control the conversation, but instead to “enable, inspire, influence and engage” with consumers. Martha Kagan’s slideshow, “What The F**K is Social Media?” makes this point in no uncertain terms. Forrester has certified the idea, and is talking about the “customer engagement agency” that is displacing the old guard. The rise of social media reflects the decline of hegemony, and the old guard in advertising may be the last to know. Still wondering about the ROI of social media? As Qualman sums it up, “The ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years.”
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 at 9:53 am and is filed under 1:1 Marketing, Community & Social Media, Community & Social Media, Consumer Strategy, Digital Marketing, Direct Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 13th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
A first for me! I’m commenting on my own post! Ran across a series of presentations here — http://www.slideshare.net/SmashSummit/presentations — that are in essence presentation decks from the recent Smash Summit. They’re quick and easy to digest, and include valuable social media stats and tips for our industry. I hope you find them as interesting as I did.