Is it quantity not quality for user generated content?

As news feeds on popular social media platforms become swamped with promotional user generated content, we have to ask are these diverse new channels actually delivering for marketers?

Over recent years this blog has made frequent observations on the growing diversity  of publication platforms available for user generated content and on their business models.  Platforms that have evolved from social media origins such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn and where each started with a particular focus e.g. Twitter news headlines, YouTube video content, LinkedIn professional networking. There seems now to be a convergence of functions that see photo images and video on Facebook for example - and they are beginning to look alike. Not only is the sheer volume of content overwhelming, but the quality is generally pretty uninspiring, to the point of offering little interest in viewing it. Let me give an example - the video. It may be one that someone thinks amusing that they have shared, or a company video of some sort, but what you see is the first frame with an arrow head in the centre. Does anyone realise how boring and uninviting this looks? Why would anyone bother to view it?

Two important sources of income for publishers are advertising revenue or subscription income, with advertising content of sorts now a growing portion of the total content - paid for advertisements along with user generated advertorial. And yet  the publishers we have to remember, unlike in the print model, provide no editorial overview or control. It is pretty much a free for all, allowing users to publish what for print media would be the contents of the editorial trash can. So digital agencies are busy 'making new friends' and 'connections'  for their clients and pumping out messages by the hour. Looking at my LinkedIn feed there are messages from the likes of Microsoft, Cisco and O2, also advertorial style messages, some from actual contacts I know amongst the usual updates on who is now a contact of who. What is the marketing goal? Is it to promote a specific product, engage with the audience or maintain 'top of the mind awareness'? And does it work?

Unlike the print world there is a very worrying downside. The customers who 'don't like' the advertiser and oddly enough Microsoft and O2 apparently have their dissatisfied customers who use this channel to vent their frustrations. Probably because it is made so difficult to talk sensibly to such large companies, or indeed talk to anyone at all. O2  had a whole load of complainants commenting on their advertisement and a long complaint popped up on Facebook about a Ryanair flight which got shared.

PR  is about reputation and bombarding people with too much content, too often may be counter productive. So be aware that unlike a display advertisement in a printed publication, online you may draw criticism, so you will need to monitor comments and these could be shade who knows where.
 

A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.

Silent cranes in Docklands

"A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time."

Suddenly all I am seeing on news feeds are witty quotes. The advertising one above is attributed to Henry Ford. Research shows that companies who continue to invest in advertising during tough economic times build a positive image with their customers as well as gaining market share. On the flip side companies who take the soft option of cutting advertising are viewed as struggling by their customers. But why is this quote doing the rounds now? in the UK there are indicators of an economy recovering and in London, even dare we say, booming. Just count the cranes on the horizon to see construction - one of the indicators - is moving, house sales are picking up too and local builders are booked up months ahead. Oh make sure the cranes are active.

The chairman of a lighting company I worked for was convinced that there was a correlation between the demand for bricks and at a suitable time lag, a demand for light fittings. Probably today he would have an engineer developing an algorithm to produce input to factory planning. One interesting thing about planning, well in the corporate world where they do this sort of stuff, nobody ever plans or budgets for a downturn. The eternal optimism might be modified by only going for single digit growth, but nobody I  ever met looked at the horizon, saw half finished buildings, no more cranes and read of a million jobs lost in the construction industry and then forecast a 10 per cent drop in sales for the coming year.

The thing is those companies that in the last recession continued advertising, built a solid base and streamlined their organisation are ready for growth, or for
decline in sales. The guy who took a red pen to the advertising budget on the other hand has seen his reputation slip, top of the mind awareness eroded and kept the really expensive overheads intact.

Is Linked In linking you up with prospects?

At one time Linked In was seen as a professional social media channel and an online networking opportunity.

For fun there was Facebook. But for me it is no more a source of business than the networking clubs or breakfast meetings have been. Just think about it for a moment. Networking events are generally gathering together a group of disconnected people who just like you provide services. So a marketing networking event brings together designers, copywriters, PR  people, web designers, videographers and all your local competitors.

Who on the other  hand gives recommendations of your skills and expertise? Your clients ... and they aren't there. So is Linked In better? It kind of started life more as a showcase for your CV, great if you wanted job offers, but not that relevant if you wanted to impress clients. Personally I  have adopted the approach of only adding contacts  I  actually know and although some are clients, most are work colleagues in some way or other.

Some people however are actively targeting specific member profiles in the anticipation of getting business leads from what is in effect part of their target audience. What hey are doing is building a database of prospects which might amount to several thousand contacts. The trouble is because of the way they have been acquired they don't know them any more than the names on a bought in list.