Social media

An interesting new report – by people well-known in their own circles, but relative nobodies in the grand scheme of things -- looks at the bottom line benefits of social media engagement. Like Good to Great, the results are intuitive, and I really want to believe them – but like the Jim Collins book, the (social) science isn’t quite there.

Digital Media's headline is "Social media proven engagement proven to improve the bottom line". I'm sorry, no. Isn't it possible that the same factors that make these brands successful (forward-thinking management, willingness to take risks, etc, etc) are the factors that are leading them to try social media?

Whew! We just finished putting together the third annual Asia Digital Marketing Association (ADMA) Yearbook... My head is spinning with terabytes of data about how people use the Internet in Asia Pacific and what tools advertisers and marketers are using. You can get a free copy at www.asiadigitalmarketingyearbook.com

For me, one trend jumped out clearly from all the others: consumers are moving quicker to adopt new media than the advertisers who are trying to reach them. Don't get me wrong – there are plenty of cool case studies of companies that have used social media and other leading edge platforms successfully. Dell generating US$ 1 million in sales and improving its customer service is one example. However, looking at the broad mass of advertisers and where they are spending their money in the region, there is a disconnect between the media people in Asia Pacific are consuming online, and the tools advertisers are now using to reach them.

According to research data in the Yearbook, the most frequently used online advertising tools and platforms continuing to command the lion's share of online advertising dollars are corporate web sites, rich media, banner ads, pop-up ads, sponsored content, email and search. For all their popularity with consumers (more than 450 million consumers across the region participate in) Twitter, Facebook Friendster, Bebo, MySpace, LinkedIn and their Asia Pacific cousins do not yet prominently figure in advertisers' plans. Why not? I mean look at the numbers people! Facebook's Asia Pacific visitors to the site jumped 458% between mid-2007 and mid-2008. 48% of all South Koreans have a Cyworld account, and the site has slightly fewer than 18 million users, of whom 30% are in their 20s. China's 51.com has 14 million average weekly unique browsers, and 150 million Qzone users actively update their accounts at least once a month. In the Philippines more than 74% of the online population participates in social networking; Friendster has 10.7 million subscribers and Facebook has more than 1 million.

So what's happening? In my view, social media, blogs, mobile, and gaming are among the most under-utilized opportunities for innovation and brand differentiation online. Brands can either join the conversation online, or create platforms for communities to gather around their brand or their consumers' lifestyles. Some of this new online communication looks more like public relations than advertising, and clearly the lines are blurring between sales promotion, customer relationship management and brand building. And in some cases, advertisers may be concerned about the relative lack of control over their messaging and positioning on social media platforms, and in other cases they may not yet have discovered a credible way to connect with the community of their target customers online. But, brands MUST now dive in and connect directly with consumers and their communities, as well as -- or in many cases instead of -- interrupting their online experience with advertising messages.

Much discussion between a broad range of marketers and agencies interested in digital took place this week at the iMedia Brand Summit.

Several conclusions were drawn:

1. There are some extremely smart people around.
2. There are some really excellent digital tools and platforms ready to be used now.
3. There's zero common understanding about how best to deploy them.

One or two of the notable dissenting voices were Heidrick & Struggles' Steve Stine, who called for less emphasis on directly measurable ROI and more on the ancient craft of storytelling, while your correspondent flew the flag for a content-led approach, particularly in social media where the rules are radically different.

In a roundtable session on engaging social media, Yahoo's Ken Mandel referenced the Cluetrain Manifesto, now an amazing 10 years old. Markets are conversations more than ever before. Until brands and corporates truly comprehend this, they'll continue to barge into conversations and bring the whole thing down.

Scalability was also questioned, yet surely scalability in social media is only possible via word of mouth. It's not sufficient to engage customers via social media - we must engage those customers to the extent that we get them talking to each other.