Blogs & Brands
Almost a year ago, to be exact, on September 8, 2005, at the international conference Baltic PR Weekend, Matthew Anderson, director of Ogilvy PR Worldwide in the EMEA region, gave a talk “The era of personal recommendations: how blogs and new media change the structure of communications”. Scaring the PR with horror stories, Matthew drew the attention of specialized publications (marketing, PR, advertising) to the so-called consumer generated media: forums, chats and blogs.
Over the past year, there have been a lot of publications in Russia and Ukraine on the general topic “Blogs and Brands”. Having laid out all the publications by daddy, we can single out the main themes (and myths) circulating in the media and illustrate each.
Topic 1. Blogs - new media
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Perhaps there is a rational grain in this. If this thesis is correct, then it turns out that we now have millions of media that we can’t control at all, which we are not even able to bring into one database, and therefore we can’t pass on our “key messages”. It turns out that negative information about brands will forever circulate through these consumer generated media, burying all hopes for the success of brands. More ...
But here comes into force the law of the life cycle of any news, and, consequently, any note in the blog. And this law says that the news on the web "lives" up to 36 hours. After this critical length of time for accessing news, it is minimized, and the information becomes obsolete. Yes, there are significant examples of how information placed on blogs led to a collapse in sales (a classic example of Kryptonite locks), but such examples, in fact, are no different from the consequences of the word of mouth. It's just that this “radio” has reached a new level and now it is “word-of-mouth Internet radio”.
Blogs can be attributed to consumer generated media, but they cannot compete with the media, if only because the blog audience is miserable compared to any other media audience. It is also noteworthy that blogs have never only “on their own” influenced the position of brands on the market. Really significant events occurred only after the information came from blogs in the media. But she may not get there ...
Topic 2. Online communities - the same focus groups
In this thesis, some entrepreneurs are trying to build an innovative research business. The essence of the research method is simple: to collect everything that bloggers write about the company of interest, to conduct quantitative and qualitative analysis, nati insight.
The idea seems successful. Moreover, to simplify the analysis, special resources have already been created, such as Soapbox. By registering on the site, you get the opportunity to create your own circle of friends with whom you will discuss certain aspects of various goods, services, businesses, etc. After writing a review, you can make it available to everyone. To view public reviews do not need to register. You can even without reading the impression of a person from a particular product immediately determine whether he is satisfied or not, by the small icon to the right of the review title. If the icon is green (thumb raised up), then the product or service described is like, if the icon is red (thumb down), no.
And one more remarkable example. Recently , a new service appeared on the MySpace social network. The advertiser gets the opportunity to register his own brand as an ordinary “user”. Such a “user” can be “friended” by other users. And, if you think that only outsiders of the market will use this service, then you are mistaken. Among the brands “users” you can already meet Honda, Burger King and Starbucks.
Examples are interesting, but the difficulty with transferring focus groups to blogs is that people cannot talk about themselves in blogs with a high degree of openness. Blogging is a game for the public.
Topic 3. Blogs are all powerful because they are trusted.
This thesis can be found in most publications, but it is not entirely correct. The reader really trusts blogs only for those people with whom he is personally acquainted. In relation to others, his attitude does not differ from that of online media. In addition, an ordinary reader does not strongly trust unfamiliar authors.
I repeat: the credibility of blog posts is no different from the trust that ordinary rumors arouse in a person. Therefore, the impact of blogs is comparable to the influence of rumors. But ... Unlike rumors, which are very difficult to track, blog posts “catch” is very simple. For this, there are even special search engines Google and Yandex .
A smart marketer now has the opportunity to know everything that is said about a brand, even if it will have to get into someone's personal life.
Topic 4. All for a while
If we consider blogging as a trend, some analysts see this trend as another “bubble”, and foresee the collapse of online social networks, like the collapse of the dot-com in 2000. Wait and see.
Over the past year, there have been a lot of publications in Russia and Ukraine on the general topic “Blogs and Brands”. Having laid out all the publications by daddy, we can single out the main themes (and myths) circulating in the media and illustrate each.
Topic 1. Blogs - new media
')
Perhaps there is a rational grain in this. If this thesis is correct, then it turns out that we now have millions of media that we can’t control at all, which we are not even able to bring into one database, and therefore we can’t pass on our “key messages”. It turns out that negative information about brands will forever circulate through these consumer generated media, burying all hopes for the success of brands. More ...
But here comes into force the law of the life cycle of any news, and, consequently, any note in the blog. And this law says that the news on the web "lives" up to 36 hours. After this critical length of time for accessing news, it is minimized, and the information becomes obsolete. Yes, there are significant examples of how information placed on blogs led to a collapse in sales (a classic example of Kryptonite locks), but such examples, in fact, are no different from the consequences of the word of mouth. It's just that this “radio” has reached a new level and now it is “word-of-mouth Internet radio”.
Blogs can be attributed to consumer generated media, but they cannot compete with the media, if only because the blog audience is miserable compared to any other media audience. It is also noteworthy that blogs have never only “on their own” influenced the position of brands on the market. Really significant events occurred only after the information came from blogs in the media. But she may not get there ...
Topic 2. Online communities - the same focus groups
In this thesis, some entrepreneurs are trying to build an innovative research business. The essence of the research method is simple: to collect everything that bloggers write about the company of interest, to conduct quantitative and qualitative analysis, nati insight.
The idea seems successful. Moreover, to simplify the analysis, special resources have already been created, such as Soapbox. By registering on the site, you get the opportunity to create your own circle of friends with whom you will discuss certain aspects of various goods, services, businesses, etc. After writing a review, you can make it available to everyone. To view public reviews do not need to register. You can even without reading the impression of a person from a particular product immediately determine whether he is satisfied or not, by the small icon to the right of the review title. If the icon is green (thumb raised up), then the product or service described is like, if the icon is red (thumb down), no.
And one more remarkable example. Recently , a new service appeared on the MySpace social network. The advertiser gets the opportunity to register his own brand as an ordinary “user”. Such a “user” can be “friended” by other users. And, if you think that only outsiders of the market will use this service, then you are mistaken. Among the brands “users” you can already meet Honda, Burger King and Starbucks.
Examples are interesting, but the difficulty with transferring focus groups to blogs is that people cannot talk about themselves in blogs with a high degree of openness. Blogging is a game for the public.
Topic 3. Blogs are all powerful because they are trusted.
This thesis can be found in most publications, but it is not entirely correct. The reader really trusts blogs only for those people with whom he is personally acquainted. In relation to others, his attitude does not differ from that of online media. In addition, an ordinary reader does not strongly trust unfamiliar authors.
I repeat: the credibility of blog posts is no different from the trust that ordinary rumors arouse in a person. Therefore, the impact of blogs is comparable to the influence of rumors. But ... Unlike rumors, which are very difficult to track, blog posts “catch” is very simple. For this, there are even special search engines Google and Yandex .
A smart marketer now has the opportunity to know everything that is said about a brand, even if it will have to get into someone's personal life.
Topic 4. All for a while
If we consider blogging as a trend, some analysts see this trend as another “bubble”, and foresee the collapse of online social networks, like the collapse of the dot-com in 2000. Wait and see.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/4235/
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