Thursday, November 6th, 2008
My stand on companies entering social media has always been that the very first step is to make sure your product doesn’t suck. By that I don’t mean it has to be perfect (I love Sony but I can’t stand their sensitive hard disk), but it needs to do what it says it does. If you put it out there saying “Try this, it will do X”, then it damn well better do X. And if it does Y instead, don’t get angry and blame the blogger for a negative review or reaction to a sucky product.
Priscilla mentions correctly that making products requires a lot in terms of money and investment. But here’s the thing, if you don’t do that properly in the first place and thing social media will make up for whatever wasn’t done properly in the development stage: it will not.
One of the best examples I have is Claudia’s coverage of Podcamp Singapore. At the bottom there’s a little banner saying all the pictures/videos are taken from the Samsung Innov8 which has the tagline “the ultimate entertainer.”
Now, if the Innov8 has that tagline, but took grainy pictures and/or videos, it’s just going to get smashed online. The Innov8 does it pretty well, that’s why it can stand up to public scrutiny.
If you tell me it’s an ultramobile PC, I can overlook a slightly slower processor, but it shouldn’t weigh more than 2kg.
If they’re noise canceling earphones, I can excuse a lack of base, but not hearing the noisy person chatting next to me on the train.
If it’s a relatively good product that does all that it says it does, but consumers want more and send that feedback to you, then that’s how you win in social media because you’ve created a feedback channel that will be beneficial to your company over a long time.
The problem is companies tend to want to over-hype their products and tout it as the second coming. Consumers are smarter than that. Create the proper expectations and live up to them. If your product doesn’t do anything well, then send it back to the R&D lab. The consumers these days are way too demanding for such a product to survive.
Tags: innov8, make sure your product doesn't suck, overhyping products, priscilla tan, samsung, social media, social media for companies, sony, standing up to public scrutiny, sucky product
Posted in Marketing, case studies, social media | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
More on the IDC Web2.0 Conference yesterday (attendees aside), there were some great insights that I’d love to talk about.
Prof. Michael brought up a point that I personally identify with. He says sometimes he has a guest in the class room and the guest is talking to the class, but the class is talking to each other via IM (or maybe Twitter), in other words, we’re having multiple levels of conversation.
I hope this is not new to marketers by now. Listen to Sarah from ReadWriteWeb or Ian from MTV. Generation Y is doing this. All the time.
Sarah will tell you they won’t even read this far down a blog post. Ian will tell you we have the computer on talking to 7 friends with MTV in the background and alternate-tabbing between games while stopping once in awhile to sms someone.
And that’s the truth.
Marketers are not going to get our full attention. And they certainly can’t demand it. They’re going to have to fight for it, not by interruption, but with darn compelling content. Does this mean we absorb less if we’re doing five things at the same time? Without empirical proof I’m going to say maybe. But I feel it also makes us aware of more. I can’t walk out of a movie these days without picking up at least one or two brands featured in the show, and more often than not the conversation becomes a “hey did you see that BMW insert?” after the movie.
Speaking as a Gen Y consumer myself, I love it when brands make the effort to connect, and seem like they’re genuine. (not some scammy thing). I’ll talk to you about Sony, about EA Games, about Bluehost and about HP because I know that they’re at least recognising the new presence of the new consumers and trying. They may not be fantastic at it, but it’s better than pretending we don’t exist or are a “fad”. (full disclosure: my office does PR work for HP)
Speaking of listening, I wanted to talk about this yesterday and am further prompted by this comment. Dear Yahoo!, I love that you sponsor stuff like the Web2.0 conference, but Jonathan is right. Does it make sense to sponsor it when people don’t get what you’re about? I love the “social” ymail and I love how it was presented in a non-intrusive way together with the goodie bags. But wouldn’t it be cooler to connect with say, 60 people who are in the space, in the know and can really appreciate what your product is about? Or give them a chance to try it and be bought over?
If you’re willing to listen to a proposition (not for me, but for the local Singaporean blogosphere), let’s start a conversation!
Tags: bluehost, ea games, Gen Y, generation y, hp, ianstewartmtv, IDC web2.0 conference, im, mtv, multi-tasking, multiple levels of conversation, readwriteweb, sarahintampa, social media insights, sony, sponsorship, twitter, yahoo, ymail
Posted in Blogs, Marketing, collaboration, community, social media | 4 Comments »
