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LET’S KEEP THE
SOCIAL MEDIA CLEAN!
While
industrial media keeps its leading position within communication
investments all over the world, worldwide advertising spending
still keeps its downward trend due to the global economic
turbulence and the effects of crisis. Information taken from
several resources show that the total media spending in US is
expected to decrease 10 %. The worst case will be faced in press
and radio ads, while TV ads will also take part in this trend.
The situation in Turkey is not also so different from the rest
of the world. All estimations and statistics show another
important reality: The increase in the interest and investments
for the social media. Before starting to analyze the reasons of
this new development, it is better to explain the meaning of
social media for those who are new to the term or to refresh the
minds of others about the meaning and structure of social media.
Collective behavior motives, sharing need and cognitive
dissonance of consumers resulted in boosting effectiveness of
social media.
Social media
appeared on the scene as the result of rapid and radical change
and corresponding developments in the last 15-20 years. Extreme
developments in technology, revolutionary effects of internet in
business and social life shifted consumption and communication
behavior and led to the creation of social media as one of the
new products in the new era. Starting from the technological
changes and developments, there are four reasons why consumers
became more connected than any time before. These reasons are
the conversion of internet into a communication standard,
development of technologies which allow interactive
communication such as Web 2.0, increase in global internet
penetration and decrease in the digital divide between first and
second world countries. Collective behavior motives and cognit ive
dissonance of consumers boosted the need of sharing in consumer
society. One of the important consequences of high levels of
sharing activity within consumer society is the role
transformation of consumers from “content consuming” to “content
producing”. In other words, consumers started to produce and
share content in their interests. The foundation of the social
media is composed of the idea and actions of voluntary sharing
and exposure to the content in the consumer society. Although
social media channels may take electronic, hardcopy or word of
mouth forms, recently electronic media is the leading one in
practice. Among the electronic social media can be listed social
and business networks, search engines, micro and classic blogs
and video sharing sites.
Social media has the greatest multiplier effect of the history
from marketing and communication perspective.
Social media
is the most potential media ever existed in terms of content
effectiveness and diffusion performance. Compared to the
conventional media, it stands one step ahead because in social
media both source and target are the same: Consumers. In other
words it is the place of producing and consuming the content at
the same time. Today we have many success stories about social
media communication and the viral campaigns executed in the
market. The video of a “boyfriend cheated victim young girl” who
explains her revenge action plan to sell the remaining precious
staff of his boyfriend for only 1 Turkish Lira on the second
hand market e-store was an effective viral case in Turkey. As it
is in this case, it is a very feasible way to create effective
marketing campaigns based on forums, video sharing sites, social
and business networks in which contents are shared by millions
of consumers and consequently have worth of millions of dollars.
The best of time multiplier effect of social media is an
invaluable development for all brands when the things are going
right which means that all consumers positively share the
content about the brand. What about the opposite case? The
effect is more powerful but in a negative direction. A content
which has been shared by millions of consumers may bring
unrecoverable damages for the brand image in a very short period
of time. This is why social media is not a toy or place for
rehearsal of advertising. It is an activated brand bomb. It can
be exploded in the hand of competitors or brand’s own hand. In
contrary to the conventional media, all dominance belongs to
consumers and consequently the tactical move capability and time
for companies are limited on this new media. In case of a viral
infection in the social media, whether it is positive or
negative, it requires fast and practical decision making process
for the brands to manage and/or control the situation.
Who will be the losers? Trying to earn without deserving…
While nowadays
there are many discussions regarding the power and effectiveness
of social media, the most important issue to be discussed is the
approach of companies to the social media. As we stated before,
the source and target of social media are consumers so it is not
a paid but earned type media. In this perspective, any approach
to social media from conventional perspective will create
undesired consequences. So what are these undesired consequences?
Social media
may lose its effectiveness.
The first
negative consequence of approaching to social media with
conventional media glasses will be the lost of consumers’ trust
and its positive effect. Moreover, it may create negative
consequences. Using conventional media tactics in social media
Works such as twitting the brands via payment to celebrities,
setup of fake consumer stories for viral disseminations, using
professional actors in the viral videos will cause the consumers
to become unresponsive and lose their trust to the contents in
the social media. Setup social contents created by the brands
can be thought as effective and beneficial in the short term but
on contrary these are harmful poisons which will damage the core
structure of the social media in the midterm. Social media
should be a deserved one and if required should be supported
with conventional media in the campaigns. Brands should avoid
using the social media as a paid one. In short, social media
should be kept clean.
Brands may be
damaged in the midterm.
It will be
perceived more honest action to try to disseminate an
advertisement video in social media than to produce a setup
video which try to attract the attention of consumers with fake
players and content. All real advertisement productions which
openly mentioned and attract the attention of consumers are
welcome and no harm for the social media. The “Adidas Originals
House Party (Celebrating Originality Campaign)” video film which
included many celebrities such as Kevin Garnett, Young Jeezy,
Katy Perry, Estelle, David Beckham, Russell Simmons ve Missy
Elliott was produced for the celebration of Adidas’ 60th
anniversary. The video was widespread in both social and
conventional media and showed a good case of viral campaign in
social media supported with conventional media (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMI-3DAX-3I).
The combination of earned and paid media exposure increased the
effectiveness of the campaign. Paid media helped Adidas to have
a good viral dissemination and earn the effectiveness in social
media. These types of open and honest campaigns in social media
reflect their positive consequences to the brands while
dishonest and setup productions with hidden agendas may harm the
trust of consumers towards the brand and consequently harm the
brand in midterm (Revenge of the cheated girl – Fake Video with
professional players -
http://vimeo.com/5816931).
As a result,
social media is a postmodern reality which takes its power and
effectiveness from the consumers’ production of content and/or
their consumption of the content willingly without any push
factors from third parties. The main principles of social media
should be the reality and pure content. Social media which
includes paid and / or fake content will waste itself as a media
and at the same time will produce negative and permanent
consequences for the brands that don’t play the game with ethic
rules.
I wish this
new media, which takes its power from the consumers, to stay
clean as its first day and never lose its effectiveness…
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