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BrandialogApril 2009

Marketing and Web 2.0:How to communicate with consumersas creators of content

Brands that want to be present on social networks (and Web 2.0 in general) have to participate meaningfully in conversations rather than push advertising at consumers.Brands have to bring content, material and value through their interactions.

Marketing and Web 2.0:How to communicate with consumers as creators of content

Nobody can deny the evidence: the consumer has changed. Advertising techniques to reachhim must therefore also evolve. The internet has brought us innumerable innovations andhas become the ultimate interactive communication tool. And yet many brands still persistin using traditional marketing techniques to try to seduce the internaut. But it isn’t workingany more…In this article you will find:

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A profile of the new consumer in the Web 2.0 era;

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The new thinking that brands must apply to enter into conversation with theseconsumers;

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The hesitations and fears of brand managers faced with consumers who generateweb content;

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Solutions to stimulate public creativity without endangering the official brandmessage;

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The advantages of dialogue, co-creation and transparency – for both brands andconsumers.

From word of mouth to Web 2.0

Numerous studies show that consumers are influenced in their purchase act principally bythe opinion and recommendations of other consumers.Word of mouth is therefore the most powerful media there is. This spontaneous dialoguebetween friends and consumers is amplified and globalised today on a worldwide levelthanks to the Internet, via blogs, social networks and other forms of services and toolsgrouped under the name Web 2.0.This new web appeared at the beginning of the millennium with the emergence of newmultimedia production technologies and is characterised by the abundance of content

generated by users. Every day, more and more original audiovisual material, new ideas andfresh opinions are produced and distributed by users of popular services such as YouTube,Flickr, Facebook and Wikipedia.Beyond the debate on the status of amateur content creators versus professionals in thevarious industries concerned, one thing is certain:users have taken the high ground on theInternet.

Consumers use Web 2.0 en masse

Users of Web 2.0 naturally have their own needs and desires. They are consequentlyconsumers who use the potential of Web 2.0 to express and share their opinions about theproducts, services and brands they use. They interact with other Web users, passinformation and ultimately influence their purchase decisions. We therefore arrive at theword-of-mouth media model which we mentioned above.It would not be a problem for brands if these Web 2.0 users formed an isolated group whichwas not representative of the population, as was the case when the Internet was in earlydevelopment. But today the figures are undeniable, and they are shaking up the beliefs of product managers:

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There are more than 100 million blogs on the Web, 120,000 new blogs are createddaily, and 15.5 million messages are posted on blogs every day (Source: Technorati);

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Facebook claims more than 200 million active users.The Facebook social network itself is evolving continuously in function of the uncountableinteractions between users. New content is uploaded perpetually onto the site. The statisticsspeak for themselves:

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More than 850 million photos and 7 million videos are uploaded onto the site everymonth;

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More than 28 million content items (all types including links, blog extracts, and notes)are exchanged every month;

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More than 25 million active groups exist on Facebook. Some of these groups are infact communities of consumers of a certain product or brand.These colossal figures become even more impressive when you consider the fact that40% of social network users use the networks to find out about products and brands they like orintend to purchase(Source: TNS Survey).What’s more, 15% of all conversations on social networks include references to – or concerndirectly – a brand or product. (Source: Northeastern University).

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macabretavern0

Great Article. Internet Marketing is never easy. http://invirament.com

reply04 / 19 / 2010

Marketing on the social web. How to communicate with consumers as creators of content

Brands that want to be present on social networks (and Web 2.0 in general) have to participate meaningfully in conversations rather than push advertising at consumers. Brands ha... (More)

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Category:	Research > Business & Economics
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Upload Date:	05/12/2009
Copyright:	Attribution Non-commercial
Tags:	web2.0 marketing web brand Consumer Product conversation Dialogue user generated content web2.0 marketing web brand Consumer Product conversation Dialogue user generated content (fewer)