Another important aspect of social media that can't be replicated by a MAP is highlighted by the findings in the recent Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey as seen in the chart above. The survey found that recommendations from personal acquaintances or opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising. Ninety percent or consumers surveyed noted that they trust recommendations from people they know, while 70 percent trusted consumer opinions posted online.
“The explosion in Consumer Generated Media over the last couple of years means consumers’ reliance on word of mouth in the decision-making process, either from people they know or online consumers they don’t, has increased significantly,” says Jonathan Carson, President of Online, International, for the Nielsen Company.”
Marketing is all about building trust and being relevant to the consumer. I know I regularly look at recommendations on sites like Best Buy before I purchase any electronics. I do not know these people, but it goes back to James Surowiecki's Wisdom of Crowds theory, "under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them." Social media has a much greater advantage over a marketing platform because a Tweet to people who follow you is more likely to be taken more seriously than an email from a campaign.
Think of the power of some of the services below and compare them to how you would react to items posted there versus an email in your inbox from a vendor that you may have a passing knowledge of but no real relationship. What do you trust and believe more?
- Digg
- Stumbleupon
- revver
- Gist
- knol (yes, knol)
- Meetup
- Youtube
- Hollr
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2 comments:
Interesting discussion. I am of the school of thought that email marketing will be a dinosaur marketing tactic by 2010. But robust marketing automation and CRM systems will prove even more critical to be successful at managing customer contacts. While you can certainly measure program effectiveness for free in certain situations. I think you still need a central repository for tracking and monitoring your customers on a broader scale.
I think the trick may be to incorporate social media tactics into your marketing automation metrics. My guess is that Eloqua will need to expand its portfolio of services while at the same time lower its cost. Not good for them, but great for you (us).
Karen,
I agree. It will be interesting to see what existing vendors will do to participate in the social media world (beyond just tracking and query strings) and whether it will spawn a new wave of start ups to fill the void.
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