If you consider we’re moving into an era where the majority of information and content online and searchable via search engines will be created by consumers, then one serious issue marketers will need to address is the significant impact of the long tail of consumer-generated product mentions, or, as my colleague Pete Blackshaw says, incidential product placements. This is true not only in textual media, but also in audio, still image and increasingly video. In my column in this week’s MediaPost OnlineSpin, I dive into this issue and share a G-rated video case study featuring yours truly. My analysis includes:
So what does this mean for marketers? They must realize that WOM and CGM don’t exist in vacuums; they are much more than campaign tactics or encapsulated events, bound by time and spend. Online WOM and CGM are incremental, indefinite and span across media, and our attention to them are dictated in often unpredictable ways by search engines and social affinity groups. Online WOM and CGM happen whether we like it or not. And that’s exactly what marketers and their agencies should start paying a lot more attention to.
Please give it a read here, and leave a comment on the OnlineSping Blog to let the world know if you agree, think I’m crazy, or have any builds. Thanks!
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From the time I was introducing small to medium size groups of average people to the Internet in 1997, three times a week for a year, most of the audience wanted to know “how is the Internet going to affect local business?”
We knew they were in trouble!
Our Solution?
Consumer generated content in a select community, anywhere in the US, was the only way to empower local enterprize with up to date content.
Now our web site http://www.ShopNTown.com/SNTport.php is almost complete and I will be happy to announce the results after launch.
Point is, the only reason self empowerment hasn’t been allowed before is they didn’t want to give up control.
But think about this, isn’t one of the reasons most people go into business is control . . .
Thank you for listening, Walter Rinebold
This site is a great advertising tool.
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