Page 71 - MYM 2016

and marketing has been single-threaded and uni-di-
rectional (one brand or business to many customers
and consumers) for so long that it’s a real challenge
to make this shi in mindset and“come around to but hating some of the clowns), the fact is that you
accepting and dealing with the reality that in this
new media world the customer isn’t interested in a
single channel of anything. It’s right now the the place of your products
truly an omni-channel world and services in those markets, and the more paths you have whether you like it or not. ese to reach the consumer, the most critical conversations are being carried merrier. discussions center on whether you choose to listen
Tech channels today (in on the need for and participate or stand idly by. part because of their broad Ultimately, listening is a great scope, targeting ability and rela- start, but listening alone won’t tively low cost) are additive, not “smart sharing” and get you to the head of the pack redundant, and the cumulative precision targeting and, if you’re not noticed (or impact of well-cra ed mes- rather than random discovered), you’ll never be saging (delivered in the right chosen.
context and at the right time) regurgitation and
So, in the same spirit as we have talked in the past about “smart reach” being essential to overcome the glut, noise and clutter of the traditional marketing channels, right now
across multiple channels may be the only e ective way to break your messages through the clut- ter and noise in order to reach and engage your customers.
rapid redistribution of content.
But in trying to determine exactly how to take advantage of this peculiar place where the brands and the marketers no longer control the conver- sations and where at best – and only if you’re very good and very quick – you may have a ghting chance at shaping some of the new narratives, there is a very substantial cognitive tension between creating and delivering real meaning (value and authenticity) on the one hand and securing e ec- tive monetization (costs and actual bene ts) on
the other. e entire social sharing space just con- tinues to get more complicated and more di cult to decipher every day and very few players have demonstrated any consistent end-to-end success.
I think it’s only going to get worse as the lines between content creators and content consumers continue to blur and merge into one another. In addition, this is not a concern or an issue that’s going to fade away any time soon because it’s too appealing (on a super cial level at least) for any new business to ignore or to avoid this easy, low-cost and largely “outsourced” method of creating substantial quantities of content to “feed the beast.”
the most critical discussions center on the need for “smart sharing” and precision targeting rather than the kind of random regurgitation and rapid redistri- bution of content which we’re seeing far too much of today – o en without regard to its relevance and value to the recipients.
Sharing without caring and sometimes with- out even reading the shared material has become an ingrained and knee-jerk process for too many people and one which just exacerbates the iden- ti cation problems, the acquisition costs, and the di culty of reaching and successfully engaging
the right audiences. Volume and velocity aren’t as important to real impact and ultimate success as are the nature and quality of the connections that your sharing programs are designed to create and build over time.
ere are basically four buckets of social shar- ing today and three of them aren’t worth anything. is doesn’t mean that they won’t continue to draw eyeballs – some people never get tired of wasting their time – it simply means that those eyeballs
are basically useless to your business. To build
Of course, there’s a major issue about the quality of the third-party content that’s being created, but once you’ve gotten over that issue (loving the circus,
must have a presence in these discussions about
your marketplace and – more particularly – about
OCTOBEr 2016 MINd YOUr MarkETING | 71
social MeDia