Juice Digital, Making you Digitally Famous

The inauguration of a US President, who so successfully used social media to galvanise his campaign, is one factor among several making us rethink the model of brand/consumer communication.

The Obama phenomenon has provided a lesson in mass engagement. His presidential campaign raised funds from millions of supporters and helped to co-ordinate an extraordinary exercise in grassroots democracy. As well as raising hope for many previously marginal groups in America, Barak Obama has demonstrated that social media are a key part of modern corporate communications.

Another factor is the gradual demise of old communications models — the broadcast, top-down model which relied on interruptive methods and even the Peppers & Rogers, data-driven, one-to-one models of direct marketing.

Despite the recession, the majority of consumers are now digitally-enfranchised and connected to at least one digital device. The knowledge gap between experts and the public has shrunk and we are as likely to trust our online ‘friends’ as those in authority: in many cases, more so.

Trendwatching.com identifies a third factor, their concept of a Generation G which encapsulates the growing importance of generosity, or a willingness to ‘play it forward’, as a leading social and business mindset.

While consumers, and many businesses and entrepreneurs, are increasingly disgusted with corporate greed and its current dire consequences for the economy, the need for a change of approach coincides with the emergence of an online culture of individuals who share, give, engage, create and collaborate in large numbers.

In fact, for many, sharing a passion and receiving recognition have replaced consumption as a new motivator. Businesses may find it profitable to learn from this behavioural shift, however much it may oppose their decades-old devotion to me, myself, I.

The most important driver behind Generation G is the perennial need of individuals to be appreciated, to feel part of the greater good, to contribute, to help; in other words to find status and gratification in something other than consuming the most or the best.

This is not a passing phenomenon: younger generations practically live online while, over the last dozen or so years, virtually every prediction of how the Web would infiltrate the ‘offline’ world has proven too cautious.

Digital technology has turbocharged the social graph, allowing communication to spread virally though a variety of multimedia online. A single voice can quickly become the voice of millions.

In the marketing services arena, Forrester Research believes today’s ad agencies are not well-structured to take on tomorrow’s marketing challenges, needing to move from broadcasting messages to establishing community connections.

Agencies tend to see everything as a campaign and the social media arena does not respond to campaigns: it is not a communications channel in the conventional way. To define it thus is to do it a disservice. Marketing communications in this era is no longer about crafting messages, but participating in communities.

It is often said that once you start thinking about using social tools as campaign support, you’re thinking in terms of one-night stands with your customers, not building long-term relationships. Social media is not a campaign, not a channel, not a one-night stand. It’s about building relationships, participating in conversations, being part of different online ‘tribes’.

Transparency and authenticity are its cornerstones. It’s recognising that the customer has a face and a name and should be treated as a partner in co-creation. It’s business gone personal and companies that get that will wonder how they ever got along without it.

International ad agency DDB, ironically, considers that there are four elements to creating influence in a changing communications environment.

First, conviction. Communities form around shared interests and convictions. A brand without conviction and passion will be blogged to pieces.

Second, creativity. Brands do not need to be clever in the old understated, humorous way so much as to be remarkable. Remarkable means doing things worth noticing, worth remarking on and worth ‘re-marking’ — adding a unique online footprint and passing it on.

Third, advocacy. Influencers need to be considered, those who do the ‘re-marking’ rather than who does the consuming.

Fourth, collaboration. Smart brands will discover how to tap into the collective wisdom of communities. Participation and collaboration will provide a feeling of shared ownership and allow people to be media.

A recent study about brand promotional effectiveness, drawn from the UK’s IPA Effectiveness Awards, found that the best return-on-investment occurred where ‘talk value’ was created. Brands are already being discussed online and brands need to engage with social media on those platforms’ terms, not on their own.

This new influence model requires a new look at research and evaluation. Brand promotion needs influence and talk-value rather than persuasion. Communities, not audiences or individuals, should be the new focus.

Spokespeople for PR 2.0 have been saying this for some time and the emerging discipline of Digital PR has the potential to create talk-value without alienating the etiquette of influencers and communities that matter.