Look Out For That Buzzzzz

Long before the Internet, people shared product opinions with friends and family through word-of-mouth. For years brands have spent countless sums of money on multichannel advertising campaigns to promote their products/services. Today, it is no longer about the millions or in some cases billions of dollars spent, but rather finding ways to become closer to your target consumer to stimulate trust and support to create brand evangelism.

With the World Wide Web, word of mouth has transferred into eWOM, a social networking platform where consumers are able to share attitudes, opinions and reactions about brands, products/services with each other.  Social networking  has provided consumers with the authority to influence a brand’s image and perceptions as people are relying more on the opinions of others.

The multifaceted and influential viral marketing has also become a powerful medium for corporations. The Web 2.0 development have ignited key features of social communication services like social network, virtual reality, and online community sites that have proven to influence a brand’s image and perceptions.

Corporations are beginning to implement viral campaigns using social communication services, such as Twitter, to reinforce their image and influence consumers.  With unlimited online access for everyone, the impact can be profound. There are many other means of social networking platforms, which ones you choose depends on what’s the product or service, your target audience and what is the main objective behind utilizing these platforms.  But the bigger question is which is the most powerful when its time to build that BUZZ?

And Finally…. Power to the People

From digital media, the birth of social networks, blogs, forums, mobile and e-marketing, have revolutionalized our utilization of technology to share information and shape our views. Looking back, not so long ago, my perceptions towards certain services or products were limited to what I can see, and what corporations communicate. I often wondered if there are others out there that may feel the same or this is some mad vision that only I have. Then enlightenment dawned upon me, as the realization that this technology has empowered us to speak our minds, pulling together networks of people, eliminating time and distance, through tools that challenge us to speak out, share and make a difference, regardless of which generation we belong to.

We became the masters of mobilizing and disseminating information about anything and everything. Whether we are shopping, at home, commuting, or working, our technology- savy, multitasking skills have risen to the next level, taking advantage of emerging media. And with this power, we are now forcing corporations everywhere to reinvent their marketing techniques and strategies to capture our loyalty towards their brands.

The consumer is now empowered, interacting in fundamentally different ways with their brands. The stronger awareness and brand formation, involvement and interaction, and ultimately consumer actions related to purchasing has forced marketers to aggressively pursue their targets by effectively integrating new media tools to the more traditional ones in their campaigns. No more one-way communications. While corporations are still trying to measure the effectiveness of new media, consumers are becoming more interested in corporate values, culture and image. And what better way to share this, than the use of new media!