I have slowly been digesting all of last Wednesday’s social search news from Microsoft and Google from the Web2 summit in San Francisco and trying to figure out what it means for brands. (Here is a good video that explains it a bit more.) I must confess, given the details of how it will work in practice are still fairly sketchy, certainly in my head anyway, I am not sure there are too many conclusions that can be drawn just yet.
However, I do think if it plays out as many expect, it could have a significant impact on the relative importance that brands place on communicating with the media versus directly with the consumer. Here’s why… We all know the importance of search when it comes to getting information about a product or service as part of a buying decision. At the moment, if you search on Google for say a Sony LCD TV, you get a range of search results on the first page from Sony, CNET, Reuters and various third pary buying guides. In other words, you get a range of information directly from the manufacturer or third pary reviews written by journalists and other third party influencer organizations.
If you search for Sony LCD TV on Twitter, you get search results which show up comments from consumers about their experiences with Sony LCD TV’s, both good and bad, in among the special offers.
So today, if you search for a TV on Google the results are largely those of either the media (old or new), the manufacturer or else retailers, some of which have consumer reviews on them. In a world where a Google search integrates realtime conversations from consumers about a product or service, it immediately raises the visibility of consumer opinions (disgruntled or happy) and so makes it more important than ever that brands engage directly with consumers.
There is a lot of work to do yet before the real time search of Twitter or Facebook content truly yields the collective views of the consumer, but when it does, it suddenly puts the one off review of a product by a journalist in a very different context.
For an agency to pitch consumers directly is nothing new, as referenced in today’s Ad Age, although it does require a very different business model in order to scale. Once the dust settles on the recent announcements and the true integration begins, then I suspect those agencies that understand the importance of direct consumer communication and combine that with communications via third party influencers will be very well placed.
(Photo Courtesy of Geoff Penn)