Numbers go low...

With the development of Web 2.0 brands are no longer in control over their audience, especially when using social media platforms. Following that, audience are no longer passive, but in opposition, they actively discuss personal anecdotes associated with brands and products within social network sites. So how does a brand keep track of what their consumers and the general public are saying about them?

One positive point about brands using the Internet as a media form is that they can trace their audience’s words within different websites, whether these are blogs, forums, social networking sites or even on random websites! In contrary, there is no way of tracing word of mouth in the real world, unless all brands place microphones on their consumers or actively follow them around waiting for them to speak… Okay, we all know that’s not an option. One brand, which has experienced the influence and pressure of social media is North Face. Briefly, last year, although North Face had a presence online, they were very inactive with their audience. They had 8627 facebook fans and 1087 twitter followers, which is really not a lot for a brand with such a popular brand name, and further to that they rarely communicated with their followers. To their advantage, on April 2009 a blog post was entered, named Social Media Smackdown: Mtn Hardwear vs. The North Face, which helped the brand realise the downfall of their online existence and signalled them to take immediate action. 12 months down the line they achieved 150,000 facebook fans and 10,000 twitter followers, through change in online presence.

Advice from The North Face:

To qualify as social media the experience must allow users to share, participate, connect or contribute in a way that facilitates conversation or contributes to shared content.

Looking at North Face as a case study, social media acted as a light bulb to the brand, as it enabled it to easily acknowledged that its popularity and online reputation was unattractive to the consumers, leading to loss amongst the online world.


Due to the popularity of the online sphere nowadays, it is important for brands to get involved in the right way. As mentioned previously and as shown from the North Face case study, a brand can determine its performance amongst its target market from different online sites, which works to an advantage for them, as they can use the comments online to improve their faults. Therefore, it is vital for companies to have online representatives, whose jobs are to browse for online material concerning the brand and aim to perfect it! 

The power to define and control a brand is shifting from corporations and institutions to individuals and communities. 

The bottom line is that consumers have too much power nowadays and companies absolutely need to keep the consumers satisfied! Although there is no accurate way of measuring the result of marketing campaigns in the real world, the online sphere is different, as companies can get accurate statistics on the various sectors they are involved in!

Beyond the Cup.. The Nescafe Plan!

Ethics are becoming a huge responsibility for companies involved in the social media world nowadays, as consumers are looking to be truthful and honest to. As hard as it is to win consumers’ trust and loyalty in the real world, it is 10 times as hard to win their trust within the online sphere. The reason being that consumers hear hundreds of stories about people being scummed on the Internet and obviously no one wants to fall within that trap. It’s almost as if companies have to prove themselves and show consumers that ethics are very important to them, in order to win their devoted attention and time.

As green ethics and environmental concerns are one of the most popular topics on the planet, it is ideal for brands to form campaigns, or even add a section on their website, about green issues. Of course, not just any company can do that! A global brand, which has achieved this very well is Nescafe. Nescafe developed a campaign called ‘Beyond the cup, the Nescafe plan’. Briefly, the idea of it is to show their customers how pure their coffee is and how respectful it is towards the environment. 

“The first important thing that you need to realise as a business owner is that when you join a social network you are joining a community”, states Michael Craig on his article on Ethical Issues in Advertising with Social Media Marketing. Nescafe are backing the previous quote, as they are forming a campaign that’s definitely an issue of concern to their target audience, which shows that the brand is sympathising towards the audience’s concerns and supporting them by verifying that the brand is ‘good’ to the environment as well as its farmers. From a personal view, this campaign has helped Nescafe with its online presence, as their target audience is of older age they needed to create a buzz online, which would be of popular discussion point amongst their consumers. Forming a concern of ethical matters to their consumers, such as protecting the environment and sustainability, is a way to get the audience involved within the social media, without disturbing their privacy and bombarding them with forced emails, which is one thing consumers don’t want! Michael Craig quotes, “as any community in real life, your business has a place in the community but should not invade one’s privacy. If you are pushy in your marketing campaign, you will fail in your Internet business”. Instead, Nescafe give their consumers the opportunity to sign up online, which is also a great way of measuring the success of their campaign amongst their target audience!

Nescafe seem to be ticking all the online media boxes, with keeping their website up to date and posting articles regarding their ‘beyond the cup’ campaign, keeping their audience informed and updated. So, if you are a little curious or interested to see what Nescafe do beyond the cup, check out their website on their sustainability page http://www.nescafe.com/sustainability-uk/Pages/default.aspx !

"But Twitter said so..."

It is unreal how much social networking sites have grown, to the point where consumers believe what they hear online. Because people mostly interact with ‘friends’ and ‘friends of friends’, there is a small amount of trust there already, which is how social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, have become dominant in influencing people. Henry Stern, senior security researcher for Cisco in Canada, quotes “there is an excess of trust in social networking”.

About a week ago, someone posted on Twitter how Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan had passed away. That became a ‘hot topic’ on Twitter, which led to people talking about it and passing on the rumor, basing it on what they read on Twitter. Fortunately for the actor, his official online network retweeted, “Jackie is alive and well. He did not suffer a heart attack and die, as was reported on many social networking sites and in online news reports”. Due to the amount of time people, and especially the young generation, spend online, a trusted relationship has been formed between the consumer and the site, which leads them to believe what they read on the particular site without feeling the need to search into the topic further for reassurance. The chart below shows how much online consumers trust each of the information sources. Social networking sites are on 43%, which is relevantly high. Perhaps the online sphere has lead people to be more open into trusting sources.

Just to prove how influential social networking sites can be, the Jackie Chan rumor is all over Google, so when you start typing Jackie Chan into the search box, the first thing that comes under his name is ‘Jackie Chan dead’ followed by ‘Jackie Chan died’.

 

The online public sphere is a sector that keeps unstoppably expanding with fast rates. As the Internet, and especially with the development on Web 2.0, is such a big part of people’s lives now in all aspects, from social to work, it will be interesting to see how the online generation evolves over the next 10 years.