Social Media or so-called media ?

Social media is fast becoming a staple of any corporation’s public relations or marketing box of tools to reach out. It is not surprising, for it allows them access to customers and potential new customers much more cheaply than any other medium. Not too many of them know how to actually do this, though, and possessing a Twitter account or having a Facebook page by itself is not enough.

While there have been wildly successful social media campaigns, (remember Old Spice?), crafting a really good one is still very much a hit-and-miss affair. Some attempted and impromptu campaigns can also backfire horribly (as Ganesh Kumar Bangah of MOL found out), lending damage to a company’s brand reputation instead of enhancing it.

In times like these, a new breed of consultant has emerged — the social media expert. This individual claims to be able to craft a corporation’s social media policy, and assists in getting their brand and products greater recognition and coverage.

Usually armed with funky slide decks full of case studies, they would be quick to show successful social media campaigns which have garnered wide support. What they would fail to mention, however, is that they were not involved in these campaigns, and that the success of any social media campaign is still very much a guessing game. Add that to the fact that the social media phenomenon is only three-years-or-so old, one would question how experts came to be in that short period of time.

And thus, that will pepper the annals of examples of how NOT to do social media.

Companies have long segmented their potential customer base, sliced and diced across many different geographical, social and ethnic attributes. One recent public admission of doing so by a fast moving consumer goods retailer resulted in a backlash no one could have predicted. Played out over many Twitter threads, on Facebook as well as in blog entries, it exposed how the company was selecting bloggers based on their perceived ethnic reach. The hue and cry, as expected, was about racial profiling.

While this is ideally not the right way to profile someone, the chest beaters conveniently forgot that every company does this, either by way of advertisements in different languages or targeting ethnic groups with different features. This does not make it right, but racial and ethnic profiling is a tool all companies have used, and probably will continue to use as long as there are differences among us of the homo sapiens species.

Bloggers too have gotten into the act. It is fairly common for bloggers to be invited for product launches, or given product to review first hand so that they would write about it. Some bloggers are even paid for this service, as it is a way to monetise the current readership of their blogs. However, when you consider that paid advertorials have been in the mainstream press for ages, and it is no secret that public relations companies are made to justify their retainers by column inches delivered, paying or sponsoring a blog to speak well of your product defeats the purpose. Were not blogs chosen because they were seen to be independent, and thus, with a higher credibility due to honesty?

As a result of wanting a piece of this lucrative pie, many bloggers, tweeters and Facebookers now want to be a part of a corporation’s marketing campaigns. Apparently, corporations (or at least the PR agencies they hire) have a list of bloggers and tweeters who they can either use or convince to carry their commercial message. The flip side is, bloggers and tweeters will then want to be on this list of influential social media people in order to derive some benefit from the corporations concerned. Some even go as far as writing to companies and asking for sponsorship, be it in the way of ads or indiscreet payment.

In the Malaysian context, we have long known of bloggers who put forward political arguments for their masters, but the deference to monetary gain is a new trend.

And it is a worrying trend, when these folk are willing to compromise balance and integrity for a pay cheque. An unexpected tweet from someone complaining about being dropped from the list of a fairly large corporation’s ‘most influential‘ list predicates the state of affairs that we have today. While I had put forth the notion that the balance between user generated content and mainstream media will form the landscape of the future, these developments herald the commercialisation of what was once thought to be an independent and alternative space. Whither then true independence?

Mainstream journalists have always held their integrity and credibility as their currency. And many have since paid the price for these high principles. When blogs and, later on, Twitter came along, others thought the everyday man would be more credible, since he is beholden to no one. But if bloggers and tweeters can be bought, and from indications much more cheaply than mainstream media, what becomes of this independent landscape of thought created 41 years ago?

Lost in the sea of money thrown through marketing and PR budgets? Or will the ones who choose to succumb to the call of material gains be balanced by a new cadre of bloggers and Tweeters who uphold the principles of equality, integrity, credibility and balanced opinion.

After all, anything for a piece of the advertising or marketing dollar, right?