The Story of Social Marketing

In school, I could spend hours perusing the blogs and sites of my peers, "poking" and "friending," scanning picture albums and making comments on things I liked and didn't like. I was invested in social networking. I was a networking fiend, although I couldn't or wouldn't have wanted to articulate that to you back then. Maybe I thought, in some way, these arguably wasted hours made social networking mine - it made me the expert. Social networking, after all, was something for only me and my friends, only me and my profile page, only me and my thoughts. Erik came to Kitchen to tell us otherwise.

The beauty and catch-22 of social networking is that it is a very personal experience which ultimately builds and feeds community. This creates a marketing chasm of sorts, an incredibly intimate connection opportunity for companies to embrace. Rob Walker said that consumers make purchases according to their personal stories. In other words, a product or service they buy is consciously or subconsciously a depiction, rationalization, or explanation of who they are as a person. If personal stories are what we want to tap into as marketers, we've got to start integrating our corporate "personal" story with those of our consumers. If a company commits to the contribution of their story, if they commit to listening and interacting with these networking people and their communities, the company is no longer a corporate intruder but a trusted community member. Social networkers are then inherently aligned with the company and its values, or at least more inclined to invite the company into their personal space - whether it be putting a product in their home or telling someone else about the company's service. Consumers' personal stories become intertwined with the company's message and the word-of-mouth / word-of-keyboard brand awareness - it becomes organic.

Erik continued to rattle off some statistics, one of which said that consumers are more likely to buy a product their friend told them about, as opposed to a corporation. So should Wal-Mart create a Facebook profile and start "friending" people? Probably not. It's disingenuous. It's not authentic. And the new generations of cynical consumers and social networkers can smell a fraud a mile away. They should, however, jump into the dialogue, in whatever way is genuine to their brand.

Social networking expands beyond my former student-life procrastination tool. It is not just something my friends and I are participating in, it-s something my dad is about to log onto (how embarrassing). It's something my boss is looking at. It's something that the marketing team of the coolest potato chip maker ever is excited about.

What I learned is that social networking is still mine, but it's everyone else's too. And if marketers want me, as a consumer, to hear their story, they've got to start listening to, and participating in, my story too.

(not)The End

- Jessica

posted on April 25, 2008