Since there's all this talk about the swine flu and worries if it possibly spreading to epidemic proportions, I thought it was appropriate to address this idea of viral spread. After all, the concept of viral marketing is based in how things spread like diseases. You can have widespread influence without having to be a hot shot nowadays, much like one little mutant germ multiplying can cause havoc. The tools on the internet allow you to share with complete strangers, so now it's all about how you work the system to get your ideas out. Play your numbers right and you can go far.
I don't know if it's just my interest or if grassroots marketing really is as hot a topic as I think it is. I personally believe it is a powerful way to get your message across, but it certainly does come with its downside. So let's explore the pros and cons of this type of marketing strategy. Traditionally, marketing has been all about reach through huge audiences via mass media - newspapers, magazines, television ads. With the advent of "social media" or what have you, individuals are empowered to connect with each other on a scale never possible before. Along with this comes a lot of unforeseen opportunities.
First of all, social media has a much lower upfront cost as compared to established media. However, the trade-off is a lot more time spent to maintain it - after all, it's all about creating and sustaining conversations and relationships. You can spend a lot of money on a marketing campaign or you can spend a lot of time building your brand and reputation via social media.
Secondly, social media has a far reach. It basically operates on the word of mouth spread that can function much like compound interest, multiplying in power over time (or in this case, people). Everyone's got their own personal and professional networks that they can tap into. Then each of those people in turn have others who they know outside of the original person's network, people they can tell the news to and continue with this branching out. Much like a tree, one original trunk can yield so many more branches!
Similarly, being able to get to so many people and gain this level of visibility is one of the main benefits. And this can all be done with little planning in terms of marketing strategy. In fact, it can't really be controlled. Instead, this acts as a sort of quality control, ensuring that the product, service, or information must be good and valid for it to get the kind of spread it wants. Of course, there will always be those bad apples that get through, the spam of the social media world, but the value of viral spread far outweighs the drawbacks of those and smart consumers can easily spot and filter out the useless stuff.
Yet, because it is nearly impossible to control what people choose to say or do, especially with a certain level of anonymity in nearly all sites, it can be dangerous tool too. When people hide behind a facade, they get bolder with their actions and do some harmful things. It's hard enough to track who did it, much less prosecute them for misbehavior. The difficulty in regulation can breach upon a lot of rights yet also be defended by the freedom of speech. This is definitely something that the lawmakers of each country should be looking at, to protect people from abuse of the system.
Finally, everything that goes up at any point, even if only for a few seconds, may leave a permanent mark. Between tracking and the immediate spread of sensational news, even if you slip just once, it's hard to ensure that that won't be following you for a long time to come. Even things sent in private or confidentially can be leaked, so tread carefully in everything you do. Things in digital form can be permanent in ways that you never want.
Social media can be a robust medium for grassroots marketing, if used carefully and well. There's a lot to explore still and I'm sure people's mindsets will change along with this new way of reaching out to them. Now it's a matter of keeping up with the new forms of media, but also not forgetting about some of the old methods. A good mixture can be achieved and it will vary depending on the aim, industry, and target audience. Nonetheless, social media is sure to be a key new part to a revamped recipe. It offers the personalized attention that people have been lacking!
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I'm not one to really delve into politics, but what I've been hearing/reading about President Obama over the past few months has been all about his forward-thinking and modernness in terms of his campaign. He's definitely breaking boundaries with his approach and I'd like to delve into how social media is impacting his presidency. To start off with, he is the first Generation X president, bringing an entirely new philosophy as compared to the Baby Boomers. As such, he has embraced a lot of social media outlets and is really quite on top of things - no longer do we have the outdated leader of the past. It's really refreshing to finally see the leader of our country making himself available to the masses in the way that he does, from having a Twitter account to keep people abreast of things (although that has definitely dwindled) to posting videos so the masses can listen to his speeches. Now that's what transparency is all about. I've never been one to ask for help. Even though the people around me have been more than willing to do so, I grew up so used to doing things on my own that it doesn't even occur to me to ask much of the time. I have learned to be an extremely resourceful person and therefore, I love to share all the things I discover. Yet rarely do I turn to my family and friends to ask them for their opinion or input on something. Instead, I take the "I can do it" attitude a bit too far and miss out on the opportunity to bond with them and make them feel useful to me. Nowadays with the market being so competitive, personal branding extremely important to stay on top of things. It's no longer just an issue of how your company is imaged, what your logo looks like, how your stores are presented, and what type of packaging you use. As social media is on the rise, so is the need for personal branding. It has become more and more about the individual and as such, it is paramount to present yourself with the image you desire. For some reason, I suddenly got followed by a good dozen people on Twitter today. I'm not really sure why or how they found me, but it was quite the mix of people I know, people I don't know, and organizations I've never heard of. Up until now, I could usually understand why someone would happen upon me, because I'd have a recent post that was related to something they are interested in. However, today's follows don't quite make sense to me and I've been trying to find some sort of a pattern to it. Is it because I posted a bunch of Twitpics yesterday? Is it because of all the random links and resources I've been "tweeting" about? What is driving traffic to my page? What a day! I left for Kollab around 4:30 in the afternoon yesterday and just got back 11 hours later. It was intense. From the obscene amount of traffic to get there to getting in early enough for awesome seats (and pit access!), it was quite the adventure. I even ran into three accidents on the drive down from home (somehow always ending up in the lane where the debris was from the collisions). Not the best start to the day, but it ended on a very high note. So who all was there? Well... Kenichi Ebina, Jazmin, Paul Dateh, Kina Grannis, Lilybeth Evardome, Jane Lui, and David Choi competed; BoA, Jo Koy, Kaba Modern, Fanny Pak, Norman Ng, and Team Millennia performed; Printz Board, James Kyson Lee, James Ryu, Welly Yang, and Teddy Zee judged; random volunteers from the audience freestyled; and of course, my lovely AKP brothers and I attended, along with the rest of the sold-out crowd (including Philip Wang, Wesley Chan, MySpace Tom...). Jane Lui on the piano, earning her second place. Kina Grannis at the after party. Yet, interestingly enough, a lot of popular YouTubers are of some sort of Asian descent. What happened there? It seems that having a platform that empowers the individual to make it on their own enables these Asians who are not making it on the big scene to create a following of their own. Kollaboration is a means of getting those types of artists to the forefront through exposure beyond social media. Social media is more grassroots whereas Kollaboration is more mainstream. It can help slowly bridge the gap between online phenomenon and nation-wide star. Aww, David Choi was really enjoying himself. BoA wants to Eat You Up. When that part of the evening ended, my fraternity brothers and I took a break to get something to eat before heading over to the after party. I was fortunate enough to come across Philip Wang, Wesley Chan, David Choi, Kina Grannis, and the guy who won the freestyle vocal competition (gosh, what was his name?)*. And I took pictures with them. Of course. ;) It was sooo exhilarating! I never run into people that I know from some sort of media outlet. It's cool to see them in person. AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! I heart Wong Fu (too bad Ted's in NYC). They're so sweet. :) Smiles all around. Maybe this is why I like low-key "stars" - they don't have some sort of upkeep to make them happy and they really appreciate their fans so much more. I'm not into the big Hollywood stars and I probably would want pictures, but wouldn't care to really interact with them beyond that. Part of that is because they probably wouldn't give me the light of day anyway, but part of that is because they've got so many fans they're probably used to that whole lifestyle already. I'd much rather appreciate those who are more real, living like I am, working in less than ideal situations, but nevertheless pursuing their passions. Not that there aren't A-list stars who do that, but they just don't interest me. In developing this blog, I have spent a lot of time researching online and reading up on other people's blogs. One thing I found was that what I was most interested in was reading their bios and trying to find a picture of them. For some reason I was fascinated by learning about these people. [originally posted February 6, 2009] |
laelene My philosophy is simple: things change. Therefore, we are all on a lifelong journey of discovery. We should be flexible, questioning, learning, adapting, and growing. Always. Archives
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