CEO of digital agency Bullseye, Jim McKerlie, has issued brands with a warning about not engaging in social media.
“If ignored, ignore at your own peril,” McKerlie told audience members at Bullseye’s social media and the conversational web seminar on last week.
While light-hearted in tone, the underlying message was reiterated by Ian Farmer, Bullseye’s senior brand strategist, who spoke about the importance of listening, engaging and influencing consumers through social media.
“There are 2.2 million Australians using Facebook today, or about one in five, and MySpace has that many users that if it was a country it would be the third largest,” he said.
“That’s a lot of potential ambassadors for your brand.”
He added brands are increasing popping up in voluntary conversations online and that companies have a lot to gain from tuning in and joining the conversation.
“I advocate that every brand should have an engagement strategy because I think the prize is so great,” Farmer said, adding, “And then there’s the opposite of the prize, with those that do not engage having their market share overridden by those who do.”
A study by Universal McCann in March reported that 34% of the 17,000 global internet users surveyed post opinions about products and brands on their blog and 36% think more positively about companies that have blogs. Last year Nielsen Media Research released the results of its “Global survey: Word of Mouth the most powerful selling tool” which said 78% of the 26,486 surveyed thought consumer recommendations about brands were the most credible form of advertising.
However Farmer said it is still early days for brands to adopt this engagement method.
“As far as social media is concerned, we’re still in a brave new world, and brands that do engage are typically those with brave marketing departments or those whose legal departments have been asleep that week,” he said.
While some brands are cautious about engaging in online forums, there is a lot to be gained by simply “listening”, said Farmer.
“The biggest challenge in this space is companies’ feeling the risk is too great and don’t do anything. Often not doing anything is considered low risk, and potentially it is, though there are some simple steps that bigger companies can take that aren’t that risky,” he said.
“Listening to the conversations in your industry category is low risk because you’re not actually engaging, but you are learning. And provided you find a way to implement that into your board room there’s some wonderful insights to be gained by just doing that.”
Farmer added that approaching social media like a traditional PR campaign is a barrier for some companies.
“Applying standard PR principles to social media, trying to get it perfect and trying to get everything to go through the legal department can be a real set back.”
While there are risks involved with brands being openly discussed online, and the potential for criticism, those willing to take negative comments on board will ultimately benefit, Farmer said.
