Yeah, yeah there’s a technology fuelled revolution going on in the world of marketing and communication. Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know all about it. The trade press headlines all scream similar themes, ‘The consumer is Control’, ‘Impending Death of traditional Media’ etc. Even the most conservative marketer is responding by insisting that their communication partners are up to speed with the implications and opportunities on offer. And so they should.
But this is only part of the equation.
You see interactive media is well, interactive. And to effectively play in this space means you have to have an appropriate organisational structure to deal with it. Ask yourself this… who in my marketing department is responsible for monitoring and participating in my brand’s facebook fan page? Do I even have a facebook fan page? Who’s job is it to look out for and follow-up on blog commentary? Do I (or someone in my Department) know the top SEM terms generating clicks to my website right now and how they have changed over the last quarter?
I guess the real questions are:
1. Who is dedicated to keeping an eye on how people are responding to our digital activities?
2. Who is dedicated to listening and responding to UGC about my brand?
It seems to me if marketers really want to engage in the social web, as they say they do, then some restructuring is in order. You see whilst many elements of the interactive communications mix can be out-sourced, the actual interactive dialogue consumers want with you can not. As the old saying goes ‘I want to talk to the butcher not his block’. In the future successful marketing departments must define roles and responsibilities for having meaningful interactivity (there’s that word again) with their customers.
It’s all very well to say interactive media is accountable, measurable etc. but it doesn’t amount to much if no-one’s ‘watching the interactive store’.
Nice post – the trick for marketing teams (particularly of medium/large corporates) will be in somehow structuring themselves in a way that they are nimble and flexible to keep up with the rapid pace of change.
For large marketing teams full of all manner of middle manager, internal politics, and bursting with behemoth org charts, it’ll be tough for them to play in the social space unless there is a culture of pioneering, imagination and risk-taking. Otherwise, by the time everyone’s on [tweet]deck, whatever social environment they were going to enter into will have already sailed off well into the mainstream.
And it can’t just all be up to the digital people in the team, the silos of direct, sales, crm, pr need to become more collaborative – particularly in responding to UGC.
There also needs to be an understanding of the benefits/pitfalls of giving up your tightly-constructed message-control by entering this space where authenticity is the new currency. And the implications for resourcing to do it adequately.
Digital space is changing and evolving everyday, so marketing teams will need to be agile in approach and structure so they can respond strategically and effectively – well outside of their annual team planning/strategy/”where are we going” sessions – and minus the inherent internal red-tape.
Scott.
Great comment. Absolutely 100% agree with your insights