Not so new marketing stuff for the new year

It’s that time of year again when all the experts reflect on what happened in 2008 and stick their neck out to advise anybody willing to read, what will be going on in 2009. This is usually a very popular past time for folk involved in the technology world.

So what is going on? First off, the following are just some observations and are not to be considered expert in any way. Besides the fact that I’m no expert, I’m also far too old to know what the internet and other modern technology stuff is all about, so I can prattle on without worry.

The first question still lingering is what about mobile? So much promise, so little delivery. Sure there are some innovative uses. One I saw recently on a South African bank’s site. ABSA offers a cellphone banking option to send money through to people who have no bank accounts. A 6 digit access code is created to allow the other party access to the funds via an ATM. Very clever.

Of course in the meantime, I have inherited an iPhone and am experiencing the age of the smart phone. Talking about the iPhone, it’s the little things that make one such Apple addicts. I landed in Dubai and I switched the phone on and it automatically adjusted the time to local time. Such a pleasure. Maybe other phones do this too, I’ve just never noticed it before.

Many of the gadgets have shown incremental improvements. The digital cameras are getting more powerful, copier/fax/scanning machines are getting smaller, phones smarter and technology is being made ‘greener’. More environmentally friendly.

Nothing really blindingly new though that I have seen. Maybe I’ve just been sleeping a little, or missed stuff because I’m not working in an office environment. But surely on the internet new things are bouncing around excitedly?

Well. Not really. There hasn’t been anything that has crossed my computer that I can truly rave about. Lots of small innovations have made an appearance. Some others have grown in stature. One such application being Twitter.

I never could see the purpose of Twitter when it started even though I was a fairly early adopter. Hence the fact that my Twitter name is Anja. But at this stage I have all of 27 people that I am following and 51 followers. In terms of Twitter I am FAIL. So I’m obviously still not seeing the point. But a fair number of marketers are using this instant messaging community.

But I do see an awakening happening in terms of the general social media space and the business world out there. There seem more meaningful discussions. One such little document that crossed my path was a brief diagnosis by a few people on what they see in their crystal balls.

With all the hype and hot air, social media has yet to work for the companies whose business focus this is, such as Facebook, as well as for companies who want to utilise this phenomenon in support of their brand’s marketing strategy.

Probably the biggest reason why the Facebook’s or Digg’s of this world are just not really making the money that one would think possible considering the popularity and traffic their sites get is the fact that advertising on the internet is still based on traditional models of interruption marketing. The viewer is interrupted with the message rather than engaged in interacting with it.

Traditional advertising that calls for the attention of the viewer or listener works in media such as newspapers, magazines etc. In fact, a magazine that lacks sufficient advertising seems to loose some of it’s appeal. And a good TV commercial can be hugely enjoyable especially the ones using comedy to explain their message.

Online has not taken to this format and marketers are still scratching their heads in confusion. What to do. There is some movement towards engaging the consumer via social media. But many major barriers need to be broken down first. Companies are reluctant to open themselves up to uncontrolled conversations with anybody never mind their clients.

One of the issues that is stopping companies from embracing social media is the reluctance to allow a conversation to happen in the first place. Up till now, in most cases the only recourse the customer has had was to walk away from the product or service. With other words, use somebody else. Not so easy when its Microsoft for instance and all your software is for the same platform.

Another major issue is that social media is all about people interacting with each other. For marketers this is a new concept. After all advertising is generally compiled once, and then launched at the consumer. No further work is required. Social Media doesn’t work like that.

In fact there have been many people, never mind companies, who have found this out at their expense. Social media requires constant input, passionate participation, and relevant and honest commentary. This requires resources and staff that companies are not used to having to allocate. There are no quick solutions. And certainly no place for pretend effort.

Playing in the web environment is a different scenario entirely from dishing out enticements to buy to a passive audience. The web audience wants to get involved in collecting information on products themselves, evaluating options, contributing to opinions and in general being hugely more pro-active in the purchase decision. Companies are bound to feel insecure at the extra scrutiny directed at them.

Just as an example of how unsure companies can get when faced by the workings of social media a case is playing itself out in South Africa where a blogger wrote about a bad experience he had with a company selling time-share holiday accommodation. He was not that flattering in his article.

The company took umbrage and is suing for defamation. In response, the blogosphere has provided the company with additional far reaching bad press. A major fall-out which the company probably didn’t anticipate. Treat social media with caution especially if you do not understand it.

For marketers the foray into social media is on the cards. Let’s see if 2009 will be the year where they embrace this new communication format and make it work for their brands. It will require a different more open approach and a lot more work than one anticipates when starting on the journey.