When To Blink

It feels a little contradictory to be constructing a post about how social networking tools are changing the way we interact and conduct our lives, so soon after suggesting that it may just be a passing fad.

But be that as it may, you’d have to be Blind Freddy not to acknowledge that Facebook and Twitter are the “hot” things at the moment in the online social media scene and for the time being at least, are here to stay and affect the way we communicate with consumers and indeed the way consumers communicate with each other.

In my opinion if there is one extraordinary thing about the rise and application of social media – and there are no doubt many – it’s the way it has help cut through the advertising blather and make word-of-mouth more accessible and influential than ever before.

Word-of-mouth has always been the most powerful tool in the marketer’s arsenal. An endorsement from a friend is worth countless times more than the pushy salesperson, infomercial, or advertising campaign force-feeding the virtues of their particular products, for the simple reason that there is an element of trust and perceived objectivity present in the former that is simply not there in the latter. It is not our friend’s “job” to tell us about the latest must have gadget or hit film and so when he or she give us the thumbs up, it obviously carries significantly more weight.

But whereas in the past our exposure to word-of-mouth may have been limited to a small circle of friends, with the advent of Facebook and Twitter we can now tap into the thoughts and feelings of a much wider social network.

To see this in practice, hop on to TweetFeel.com. Plug in a film or album and it will almost instantaneously provide you with the sentiments of the Twitter community. I entered new Quentin Tarantino flick, Inglorious Basterds, into the search box and the website generated an 83% positive rating for the film.

It’s quite incredible and has very real ramifications for marketers.

Take the film industry for example. Michael Sragow, in his article entitled, “Could Twitter Destroy Hollywood’s Marketing Magic“, writes:

“While word of mouth could always make or break a movie, it usually took days to affect the box office. But the rise of social networking tools like Twitter may be narrowing that time frame to mere hours. And that has Hollywood on edge.”

Just think about that. Whereas in the past a successful opening weekend may have depended on the opinion of a few influential critics, now the success of a film may hinge on the “tweets” or status updates of movie-goers everywhere.  The millions spent on promotion may help in bringing the first wave of people through the cinema doors, but can such promotion stand up to a barrage of post-credits Twitter criticism?

So practically what does this all mean?

It seems that if you have a poorly performing product or service there is simply nowhere to hide any more. No wonder big companies like BigPond are now interacting with customers via social media.

The consumer seems to be empowered like never before and companies must be vigilant in satisfying them.