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Internet Marketing Strategy News: Quick Guide to Consumer Generated Media

11/02/2006

Like it or not the consumer is in control. They control what they want to view on the Web and they also control the content that they generate. Don’t ignore this in your Internet marketing strategy.

“Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty, but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo… Blogs started a few years ago as a simple way for people to keep online diaries. Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns.” Attack of the Blogs - Forbes.com

A massive amount of media is being generated daily across the Internet, and they could be talking about your brand. The Web has given consumers a voice that simply can’t be ignored.

They are expressing their opinions about almost every subject, issue (especially if a brand is being trashed) and product imaginable, which can adversely impact a brand. If they are commenting about your brand you may not learn about it until it has reached wildfire status.

Consumer Generated Media (CGM) is something to be reckoned with by firstly knowing what is being said about your brand and then developing an Internet marketing strategy that takes CGM into account. Think of it as ongoing consumer research that moves at the speed of a mouse click.

CGM has many forms and includes:

• Blogs have been around for a while. There are some 80 million blogs now with around 120,000 being created each day. They are typically updated with interesting “snippets” of information, news and views about a specific subject, which of course can include your brand. Because the blogs create this constantly updated content on a specific topic they get very good results in the search engines and thus can be very visible on the Web. A blog can get high rankings on a search, which makes them available to a broad audience for good or unfortunately bad purposes.

• Usenet newsgroups are public discussions and posting of ”news” in thousands of newsgroups that cover a wide variety of topics. These are essentially an international bulletin board system that contains thousands of newsgroups (also called forums). These are viewed daily by millions of visitors.

• Forums and message boards. Web forums provide for “discussion” often as part of Web based communities. Popular subjects include politics, technology, games and many other topics.
• Personal Websites and personal email
  

• Forums and message boards on the major portals: AOL, Yahoo, MSN

• Websites that solicit consumer complaints or grievances.

• Online sites that offer reviews of products and services e.g. Consumer Reports.


The good news is that CGM can be monitored and reported on, as it has a digital trail.

CGM is important to marketers, as consumers tend to trust what other consumers are saying. This should be taken into account when formulating an Internet marketing strategy.

You could blame it on all those testimonials in the multitude of infomercials that have blared across the airwaves for the last 20+ years. People really do believe what other regular folks have to say. In an infomercial you get to pick what people say about your product —but in CGM the consumer controls the content.

Their collective voices are being heard — don’t ignore them.
CGM could also be “manufactured” by vested interests. Anyone who takes vitamins knows all too well how the media has been manipulated to favor the international drug companies.

To deal with negative or black PR, there are two basic steps:

1. Get accurate, complete and timely information on what is being said on all the various part of the Internet.
2. Develop a plan of action to deal with the negative parts. (Also take advantage of the positive media that is occurring.)

Having a reliable reporting and analysis system for your brand across the Internet is a vital first step.

Embrace CGM as part of your Internet marketing strategy—it is here to stay.


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