How Social Media Changes Everything

Last semester I had the luck and the pleasure to teach URI's first Social Media Marketing course. As part of the requirements, students kept a blog of the class which forced them to stay up to date with happenings in social media.

One of the things I stressed the most in the class was the fact that social media was changing how marketers view their potential customers. It was no longer about advertising, or a hard sell, but more about building a relationship; creating a truly integrated marketing communication - a conversation if you will.

It was manager's failure to see this that had plagued the early business incursions into social media such as Second Life; they were bringing in the old mentality "advertise!". New media is not a vehicle for advertising; it is a vehicle for interacting - and it is this interaction the marketer should strive for and where the value resides.

Much like co-creation is bringing about a more customer centric view in allowing customers to have higher degrees of participation in creating their products and being in control of their satisfaction - although its detractors understand companies are abusing their customers and duping them into performing the labor - social media brings into media planning and advertising a way for the customer to also participate.

So it is with excitement that I see Cartier has dived into MySpace; I cannot wait to see if they take advantage of this opportunity.