(Source: The Miami Herald)
By Cindy Krischer Goodman, The Miami Herald
Mar. 25--I barely get through my to-do list each day, yet somehow I find time to update my Facebook status or Twitter about my latest blog post. So, I really shouldn't be shocked that busy people like me are joining Kraft's Facebook page, swapping recipes on its website and participating in the company's Cooking Challenge on YouTube.
We all are members of a population that went from reading information and enjoying being entertained to making our own videos, writing our own product reviews and telling our own stories on the Web. Today's stars are people who create information so interesting that others want to share it online.
Smart companies are catching on. They now realize they can either embrace this revolution or risk losing customers.
"The digital age is here and Kraft is trying to be part of it," Kelley Woodland of Kraft told those who participated in the Custom Publishing Council Conference in Miami on Monday and Tuesday.
With technology proliferating and getting easier to access, most of us are committing increasingly more hours to web-based activities. For companies big and small, it means a mindshift in how they market to us. Does it surprise you to know that commercials and brand marketing are losing ground to consumer-generated videos on YouTube?
Companies that are marketing effectively are using social media and the Web to go wherever potential customers are going and getting them to create a buzz about their products. David Meerman Scott calls it creating "a World Wide Rave."
How do you, as a brand or business, spark the conversation? Mercedes-Benz recently used Divine Caroline, a website aimed at women, to generate talk about its new SUV by giving it to bloggers and having them post about driving it. Skittles recently encourage people to express their love of the brand by posting photos of the colorful product on Flicker, a photo sharing site.
John Moore of Brand Autopsy advises this strategy: "The smaller you are, the bigger you must look. The bigger you are, the smaller you must act."
For example, online shoe retailer Zappos, with a billion in sales, uses social media marketing well to look even bigger. The company has scores of bloggers, lots of video blogging and 198 employees on Twitter to help keep the company's profile high and humanize the folks behind the shoe sales. About 75 percent of Zappos's business comes from return customers.
"I think it has a lot to do with retaining relationships through any channel," Moore says.
Meanwhile, the future is marketing to us on our mobile phones, says Nic Covey, director of Insights, Neilsen Mobile.
