Advertisers are still misunderstanding social media
By Molly FlattAndrew Harrison’s piece in Marketing Week last Wednesday got me, well, a little riled. Challenging “the whirl of advertiser excitement about all things digital”, he believes that “the online social networking emperor has no clothes” as it is an “inappropriate” advertising medium that fails on “delivery of audience and generation of revenue”. Read the whole article here.
Harrison’s view of social media as an advertising medium starts from a basic misunderstanding of how people are acting in this space. His commentary is correct in asserting that social networking does not fit into the model of traditional advertising, that online ads are virtually redundant, that reach and revenue have been sidelined, and that social media is no more appropriate an advertising medium than a pub or café. It’s exactly because advertising – as Andrew understands it – does not fit into our new social platforms that the opportunities are so great. Businesses are being forced to approach consumers in a newly collaborative way which is much more valuable to both them and their cusutomers than the methods that Andrew quite rightly says do not work anymore online.
Social networks represent a massive paradigm shift in how we interact with brands, our relocation of trust in brands from radio, TV, print and banner ads to peer to peer word of mouth – and there is plenty of research to prove it. Just generating revenue and proving eyeballs to content is no longer enough. With consumer trust in brands so compromised, media savvy and recession-wounded people look to each other to decide where to put their money, but also their emotional investment and loyalty. The brands that recognize they need to listen to, learn from, and inspire the independent, passionate conversations between their consumers are the ones that will survive and flourish – not the ones who retreat because their old methods won’t work.
The landscape, mentality and behaviour of consumers has irrevocably changed, however many lookalike 2.0 startups crumble under the strain. The issue is not that social networking is the emperor in new clothes; the problem is that advertising emperors are trying to squeeze themselves into social media’s garments when they just won’t fit.
