The Conversation is F*cked
11March 19, 2008 by Colin
You know, I’m beginning to think we’re due for a big shakeout – and untested social media tactics will be the first things to be thrown off the boat.
The economic indicators are there. Credit crunch. Everyone running to the security of gold. Drops in same store sales. The convergence of climate change worries with $100 oil.
When consumers decide to moderate their spending, where will companies cut their expenses? Bodies.
Bodies that do not have a quantifiable impact on sales.
Have any of your pitches included “starting a conversation” as a goal lately?
Are you REALLY looking for input from your consumers and stakeholders? Or does your idea of consumer generated content really just mean getting internet geeks to design edgy YouTube videos for you?
In a recession, co-creation can be another way to hose your ad, marketing and public relations agencies.
I’m arguing that companies under the gun, facing the knife, don’t really give a f*ck about what the public has to say.
They just want you to buy jars of tomato sauce, BeDazzlers and environmentally friendly printer paper.*
Sure, they’ll play along – but only to avoid product safety claims, grief about shift firings and to avoid repaying tax concessions granted when they built the local plant.
Consumer contact will revert to market-testing, sampling and insincere gladhandling on the shop floor.
Oh – and if you’re a new hire in a PR firm, I hope you’ve been developing a diverse skill set. It would suck to be the new “social media star” that gets thrown out with the bathwater.
*if you believe that there’s any such thing as enivronmentally friendly printer paper, you’re an idiot and a sucker.
[tags] conversation, cluetrain, customer service, recession, economic downturn [/tags]
Boy, if I were a “social media star”, I’d be scared for my job after reading a post like that.
Oh, wait…
It’s truly a quandary.
They may find it easier to rely on the old methods, but at the end of the day do they really have the love of their consumers? It’s one thing to increase sales because you offer $10,000 as a prize, but once that carrot is gone, will the customers still be there? I guess companies that don’t see the importance of building relationships with their customers have a myopic view of things. Will these companies still be around in 10, 20 years? Not without building these relationships, I think.
And at the other end of the spectrum, those who “get” social media need to find a way to communicate its usefulness to their bosses, and not just tinkle around with stuff that they find cool and leave it at that. Preaching to the converted (taking the term from Mitch Joel) is hard, but its a message that is worth being delivered.
[...] Moving forward, PR and marketers have an opportunity to accelerate through the recession and differentiate themselves by focusing on ROI. Remember, companies are in business to generate revenue, and that’s the predominant reason why they hire us. If communicators focus on intangibles like "credibility" or "conversations" that cannot be tied directly to their clients’ or company’s bottom lines… Well, they put themselves at risk. [...]
[...] “Cash Rules Everything Around Me” is another Wu-Tang anthem and it is the hip-hop equivalent of ROI. As great as it is to be part of the “conversation,” everyone is still here because they are making money, and its no different for corporations. As Colin McKay recently wrote, “companies under the gun, facing the knife, don’t really give a f*ck about what the public has to say.” [...]
No one needs a conversation to move another box – or another 100,000 boxes — of laundry detergent. Can you move more Tide (I’m a Cheer Colorguard man m’self) with conversations and relationships? Yes, but it’s a long, slow slog and likely isn’t the best tool for the job.
It’s not a quandary; it’s just the reality of most CPG, commodity and near-commodity businesses.
Nabilah asks: “Will these companies still be around in 10, 20 years?” Well, I don’t know — but I’ve got a lot more faith in a big CPG company like P&G to keep its eye on the ball and adapt *when it makes sense* than I do in the hot air from social media fans.
Here’s a test, not just for the social media folks but for PR practitioners in general: At large CPG companies, the product managers *know,* with a high degree of certainty, what each dollar of advertising spend will get them in terms of purchasing uptick. They know that because they have historical, best-practices and other data sets.
You want to keep your job in the shake-out? Figure out how your skill set can compete with that. Figure out how you can drive sales. Figure out how you can confidently say, “Well, for every dollar of PR or social media spend, we’re committed to show x dollars in increased sales.”
[...] Posted by Michael on March 23, 2008 As a communications student looking to break into the world of professional PR, I became concerned after reading Colin McKay’s assertion that the “conversation” — genuine communication between organizations and their publics — is screwed because of the recession: Oh – and if you’re a new hire in a PR firm, I hope you’ve been developing a diverse skill set. It would suck to be the new “social media star” that gets thrown out with the bathwater. [...]
Your POV will certainly be adopted & shared by many brands, however; history has shown that the brands who have spent more (not less) in recession times on marketing & PR are the ones who come out smelling more like roses.
Not to say there won’t be an impact on social media as you suggest, but as a marketer i’m excited to engage the brands who see a recession as an opportunity to create more conversation – not less.
Ulp. I’m just contemplating trying to use all my social media experience to get INTO public relations and now you’re telling me this? Actually, I’m reading James Howard Kunstler’s The Long Emergency right now (as well as his scabrously funny blog) and I’m having a hard time imagining ANY career that isn’t going to be affected by the coming hard times. That being said, businesses are always going to act the same way: sacrificing long term customer loyalty for short term profit. Hopefully some of you are doing work for companies who DO get it, and whose customer loyalty will be all the more necessary right now.
[...] Many marketers tout the value of social media conversation. But to a business both now and in the future this means little. Really this indicates a focus on tactics rather than strategy and results. It’s like touting the intangibles of endless chatter. [...]
[...] intention of the Social Media model – it’s very ‘Web2’. There’s a good argument that says ‘conversation doesn’t pay the rent’, but inevitably, new things take a while to figure out and I have the impression that the [...]
[...] intention of the Social Media model – it’s very ‘Web2’. There’s a good argument that says ‘conversation doesn’t pay the rent’, but inevitably, new things take a while to figure out and I have the impression that the [...]