“We need a viral video and a blog – it will save us millions on advertising.”
“We need to send mommy bloggers a press release, so they will sell our product for us.”
“We know we want to create a Facebook page, but we haven’t figured out what to put on it yet.”

Sound familiar? Chances are, you’ve heard these comments from your boss, colleagues or, perhaps, you’ve made similar comments yourself.   The instinct to use social media as a means to reach consumers in more meaningful and compelling ways is right on target, but picking a tool because it’s “cool”, or because your competition is doing it, is not the smart or cost-effective way to leverage this tactic.

According to recent survey results reported by Marketing Daily, more than one-quarter (27%) of consumer and B-to-B chief marketing executives identified social networking and word-of-mouth as the tools they would most like to introduce into their marketing mix , as a way to compensate for anticipated budget cuts.  While these tactics ranked ahead of all other traditional or digital marketing channels, only 10% of respondents reported actually using Facebook and MySpace in their marketing plans.

So why have so few marketers actually used social networking tools?  It’s not as easy as just picking a tool and pushing out a message.  If success was as easy as willing social media to solve all of your problems or shoot profits through the roof – we’d all be rich and happy, sipping margaritas on a beach somewhere, wouldn’t we?

The very foundation and success of social media is based on consumer control. Consumers govern the digital universe as creators, critics, joiners, spectators and collectors – and that control has changed our relationship with buyers and users. Consumers expect brands to communicate in relevant and meaningful ways in this medium – not force their brand inappropriately into a Facebook page or in a boring, 20-minute video.

Social media allows us to connect on a more personal level than ever before with our consumers, so it makes sense that leveraging this benefit requires us to really know who our consumers are and how our brand and messages fit into the fabric of their lives.

So here’s a thought . . . instead of jumping right into social media, why not use this new channel as a research tool to gather rich insights about your audience and their relationship to your brand?

Social media is a pool of unaided, unbridled consumer sentiment – just sitting there for us to observe and absorb. So rather than pulling our hair out trying to decide which of the many social media tools to use and how to use them, we can first listen and learn from what consumers are saying online about our brand, competition and respective category.  Then we can develop social media strategies from those insights.  At Empower MediaMarketing, we now use a proprietary research tool that helps gather and analyze social media and user-generated content, as it relates to your specific market space and brand.

It’s easy to fall prey to the allure of shiny, cool, new tactics like Facebook and YouTube videos.  But if we don’t apply proven marketing principles to understanding consumer insights that can guide our brand strategies and effective message drivers, we’re just asking for trouble or, worse, failure.

By: Jessica George, Word of Mouth Marketing Director