Josh Hallett has asked BlogOrlando session leaders to post an early discussion of their session topic. Mine is participation is marketing, something well discussed on this blog.
The current Participation is Marketing theory (Chris Heuer) acknowledges that 20th century mass communications enabled companies to dictate messages, control the market, and use media to ensure brand message. With a fractured, traditional media marketplace and new social media channels, message control is dead. Paraphrasing Jay Rosen, audiences are gone and communities are arising.
Participation is marketing is not new (as Rich Becker likes to remind me), but it is reborn because of social media. Most marketers can recognize the traditional participation approach with community evangelists (usually non-profits and philanthropic efforts — see the National Business Community blog). Also consider the “man of the people” approach used by so many successful political campaigns.
Successful social media marketing efforts require companies to become a part of the community. In essence they don’t try to control the message, instead organizations acknowledge they are part of the community and give to it. They act appropriately with transparency and accountability as upstanding members of the community.
In short, participation means companies need to stop thinking of themselves as the center of the universe. They need to get into the street, roll up their sleeves and become people amongst people. Value creation from companies acknowledges they are an entity amongst entities.
There’s a sense of humility to the social media marketer. In essence, they understand that they are a role player in a larger, greater thing. Chris Brogan wrote an outstanding piece that described this participation ethos called, “I am a Marketer.”
And so, it’s a new media world that really returns us to old Main Street ethics. A shopkeeper within the town builds great relationships with his/her community members. There’s an intrinsic understanding that they need the community as much if not more so than the community needs the shop. And so the shopkeeper works hard for the community, and treats it well.
Social Media Case Studies
Note: No where does it say in this column that a participation approach requires a marketer to sacrifice results. That’s why it’s important to consider case studies. Included in this Blog Orlando Participation is Marketing discussion will be an effort to discuss strengths and weakness of real world efforts. Here are eight of them.
Four of these case studies came courtesy of Communications Overtones’ Kami Huyse, and her excellent post on case studies.
- Click TV – Blogger Relations for Click TV (April 17, 2006): An outline of a blogger relations campaign for a Web 2.0 company, Shel Holtz, results here
- Coca Cola’s Community Approach to Second Life (April 17, 2007): Coca-Cola’s new social media strategy in Second Life featured an approach other than buying real estate and creating a store, Shel Holtz & Crayon
- SeaWorld San Antonio: Journey to Atlantis (May 3, 2007): The launch and results of an “event” site to support the opening of a new ride, My PR Pro
- Splashcast’s Social Media for Marketing: (May 16, 2007): Splashcast used social media for marketing purposes, and succeeded by directly engaging the community, Marshall Kirkpatrick
- GeoCommons Social Media News Release (May 29, 2007): An outline of the pitfalls and successes of releasing news via SMNR, Livingston Communications
- New Adventures of Old Christine (June 14, 2007): The show was about to get a new day and time, and she thought outreach to parent bloggers was a perfect fit, CBS via Marketing Roadmaps
- Sci Fi Channel Digital Press Tour (July 12, 2007): Sci Fi channel begins blogger relations program by providing access to filming setsSci Fi, Channel via Marketing Roadmaps
- Goodwill’s Social Media Strategy (August 29, 2007): How Goodwill used social media to rebrand its vintage clothing, Livingston Communications
These case studies were successful because in some way they all acknowledged that participation within the community was essential. I look forward to continuing our chat here and at the unconference!
Geoff, this is a great foundational post that I’ll be sure to share with my readers – thanks for including one of my posts in your case studies. I look forward to reading the other case studies you list here. Really appreciate the articulation of the concepts in the top half of this. Glad to be getting to know your work more and more – keep it up!
Hey Geoff,
Thanks for including me as well as our community blog (that begs the question … how can Rich possibly be a fan of Ayn Rand) in another great post. To lend something, last night I was reading Communication Arts, and I was struck by a quote from Tracey Clark (maypapers.blogspot.com) that I’ll be including somewhere soon (as well as sharing it here)…
“The blogosphere is all about Internet links that move faster and more efficiently than traditional word-of-mouth marketing ever could.” Hmmm…
Best, Rich
Thanks, Marshall. You have a great blog, and you’ve done some impressive work, too.
How could I not include you, Rich? You’re the man!!! Besides it’s important to remember that participation marketing has historical context. Thanks for reminding me.
Hi Geoff. I don’t want to sound picky but this….”In the words of Jay Rosen, audiences are gone and communities are arising” is not accurate. I didn’t say “audiences are gone” or even “audiences are no more.” It’s more nuanced than that. In fact, in the post you cite, these lines appear:
Look, media people. We are still perfectly content to listen to our radios while driving, sit passively in the darkness of the local multiplex, watch TV while motionless and glassy-eyed in bed, and read silently to ourselves as we always have.
Should we attend the theatre, we are unlikely to storm the stage for purposes of putting on our own production. We feel there is nothing wrong with old style, one-way, top-down media consumption. Big Media pleasures will not be denied us. You provide them, we’ll consume them and you can have yourselves a nice little business.
The point is not “no more audiences” but that people cannot be considered simply audience members anymore. Some of them are producers as well as consumers, and we need a new name for those people. This is what my post is saying.
I hope that helps. Cheers….
JR
Great feedback, Jay. Sorry about that, to address in this post I’ve changed the intro of that sentence to read paraphrasing. Your post in question is one of the most influential ever in social marketing circles. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in social media marketing. Cheers, and thanks for visiting.
Oh, and by the way, Jay? The email you left — none@none7.com — bounced and it featured a non-existent URL. I sure hope this wasn’t a fake Jay sighting… In the future, I’ll have to ask you to leave a real email address or else your comments won’t approve. I’m sure you understand, in the spirit of transparency and protecting your identity :)
-GL
http://www.pressthink.org is not a non-existent url. I own it, and it re-directs to which is unwieldy and non-memorable.
I swapped in valid emai; I use a fake one to avoid spam and because by clicking on pressthink.org takes you to my blog, where in the “about” section there is a link to email me.
Thanks for the kind words about The People Formerly Known as the Audience. Here’s one that may hold a little bit of interest, as well: There is No Demand for Messages It is along the same lines.
Cheers…