Marketing is Content - a Case Study at NCI
Posted by Pat Kitano at 6/22/2009 11:18 PM 
Categories: New Business Models, Social Media, Transparency
Categories: New Business Models, Social Media, Transparency
Dan McCarthy at Viral Housing Fix examines how online marketing has evolved into a content strategy. Simply put, social media has changed the definition of what the mass media used to control - content. Now that content has become an aggregation of voices, it is everywhere and uncontrollable. Marketing strategy that used to be focused on controlling the brand image is now focused on "herding" the voices.
Dan's thesis on how to develop a social media marketing strategy is revealing... traditionally, the costs associated with brand management - marketing collateral and their production are high, but content production was minimal. Social media forces management to realign marketing resources to content management. Planning once devoted to brochures is now moved into building Facebook pages for brands as content conduits.
Companies that embrace this new way of marketing are still rare because it's hard for both management and staff to do three things: 1) give up control of the brand message by allowing other voices to create the message, 2) create content themselves about who they are and what they do (it's a big challenge to expose your intellect out there), and 3) get everybody on board with the social media program. I expect those companies like Zappos and NCI that break this mold will be equipped to set strategies and execute much faster than their counterparts.
Dan's thesis on how to develop a social media marketing strategy is revealing... traditionally, the costs associated with brand management - marketing collateral and their production are high, but content production was minimal. Social media forces management to realign marketing resources to content management. Planning once devoted to brochures is now moved into building Facebook pages for brands as content conduits.
Companies that embrace this new way of marketing are still rare because it's hard for both management and staff to do three things: 1) give up control of the brand message by allowing other voices to create the message, 2) create content themselves about who they are and what they do (it's a big challenge to expose your intellect out there), and 3) get everybody on board with the social media program. I expect those companies like Zappos and NCI that break this mold will be equipped to set strategies and execute much faster than their counterparts.
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