Web 2.0 is on everyone’s lips – it’s attractive to users, because we become the authors, publishers, content creators and between us we can create infinitely more value for each other than a company can on its own. Context is the content. Marketeers are intrigued by this prospect too, because it means new, potentially more cost-effective ways to target their audiences, spreading word of mouth and if you are lucky, being able to measure the effect much more precisely than you ever could via say TV or print-advertising. There is a prospect of creating more bang for the buck and moreover, learning more about the likes and dislikes of your consumers.
In the wake of this growing phenomena, there is an exponential growth of seminars, lectures, conferences and events to explain what web 2.0 is, what you can do with it and how best to make use of it. Countless executives are invariably crammed into a room, where some net-savvy individual extols the virtues of blogging, viral marketing, you name it and the room is filled with various degrees of perplexed individuals who are beginning to realise that the entire paradigm they have structured their careers and lives around, is shifting into the unknown and many traditional practises will have to change if they are to survive.
Your Audience is Active – not passive
Traditional communications theory used to focus on measuring and analysing the effect of media on the people exposed to it. Audiences were considered passive and we all wanted to know what watching TV really does to you, does it make you buy more, more stupid, more obese etc? The truth is that audiences are active, they consume media based on its uses and gratifications gained. That goes for TV too these days – having a Tivo box makes the traditionally passive act of TV watching much more active as you can choose what you want to watch, when, skip the ads and teach the thing to tell you next time something is on that you might enjoy. This becomes even more acute when we move towards on-line media – users decide what they do, where they go, what they watch, who they talk to and so on. What others have said is easier for them to find out, and what is on their mind is easier to broadcast to everyone around them too.
If You Want to Talk, You Must Show You Care to Listen
Traditional marketing operating from a paradigm of passive consumers that need to be engaged, first be reminded of their inadequacies and then told how to overcome them still wants to approach Web 2.0 with the same attitude. It’s still about trying to sell people some smokescreen and appeal to their fantasies and desires, but that will not work anymore, not in the traditional sense.
Imagine you are sitting at a table with a person you have never met. You begin a conversation, politely you try to find out who they are and so on. Imagine then if this person behaved as if you had just pushed the ‘play’ button, out comes some random message about who you should be, what you should do to be like that, what they are selling and how good it is. So you patiently wait till the end of this litany and ask again. You want to know about the person behind that statement. Are they nice, do they have integrity? Do they care about the same stuff you do? Again the same mantra. What that is, is a one-way broadcast, like radio and TV advertising, because the medium didn’t allow talk-back – but nowhere is that approach becoming obsolete quicker than the web.
No longer is it about ‘what do we want to communicate – it’s about ‘what do we want to facilitate!’
Web 2.0 is a dialogue, it’s a start of a love-affair, it’s a discussion that takes twists and turns depending on who is having the conversation and what the topic is. It’s fun to talk to someone if they show they listen to what you have to say and respond accordingly. It’s even better when they can put you in touch with other people just like you. It’s extremely boring when you feel like you are talking to a wall. It’s really that simple – but what it means is that smokescreens become harder to maintain. After all, not everyone is David Copperfield and besides, if everyone’s rating everything and all views are public – you don’t even want to be David Copperfield, you have to be you and be good, because what goes around comes around.
Build Good Karma
Buddhism is a very useful in this context and may even one day become the foundation of the new world-wide company ethic – but the basis is simple: refrain from bad behaviour, do good and remember that karma comes back to haunt you – good or bad. So can your company handle that level of openness, can you genuinely say that everyone in your company respects your consumers and tries their utmost to be fair, do the right thing and never lie? Marketing in this context becomes less about convincing people something is great, but more about setting the structure and motion in place for responding to what people want, encouraging them to work with you and always, always, always making sure you are honest, respectful and humble. In product design we always used to joke that you are only as good as your last project. How true is that – in the world of web 2.0 you are only as good as the last consumer experience you delivered.
