Speaking at the P&G Conference
Today was a first of sorts, participating in a rather impromptu, fluid discussion with Ian and Michael as presenter and panel moderator respectively, and Daryl, Estee, and I forming part of a teen youth panel that was to give them insights on how Gen Y connects with technology. The occasion? The P&G ABBA Awards, some sort of a training session in which we talked to 450 executives from around the region, mostly marketing managers.
Unsurprisingly, many of the questions focused on the buzzword of the moment- blogs. I would really caution against thinking that blogs are the cheap and easy solution to “connecting” with your customers, or giving your company that “personal touch” and a “voice”. P&G were right to be cautious of course, putting anything out there on the blogosphere could go either way- people might love your product (and thus wax lyrical about it), or they might find some fatal flaw in it and post a lengthy rant about it.
I guess the fear of losing control, or handing over the reins to the consumer to perpetuate your brand message, is causing some sort of inertia on the part of the larger companies like P&G to jump on the social media bandwagon and utilizing its true benefits.
Blogs are a valuable resource for opinions, especially those of customers who have tried your product. I wish they would stop seeing it as potential advertising space to be bought – its high time people stopped trying to use the traditional advertising model, if only because the environment has totally changed. Yes, trying to monetize blogging, or social networks is probably top of the mind for any business person, but the true value of these sites honestly lies in facilitating conversations and relationships(which hardly translates to immediate ROI).
This article sums it up pretty well.
And what they breed is mistrust.
There are a million ways to say it. “Before people care what you know, they want to know that you care.” “The best way to get what you want is to help others get what they want.” “If you listen to what people say, they will then listen to you.”
For one, I recently read that you should just get your product out there, even if it is not perfected, but remember to change it for the better. Why not test drive it on a couple of opinion leaders and monitor the conversations that ensue? If I had an amazingly good product, I’d want the web to be abuzz about it. If I was afraid of possible backlash on the web regarding the product…then there must be something inherently wrong about it, no? In which case, clever marketing can only get you so far.
I also found it interesting that none of them thought of using blogs internally as a way to communicate between P&B brands, or employees, to share their resources. It seems they were quite fixated on the inherent risks or possible returns of what personal bloggers could do for them.
Honestly, I do believe that in the case of personal bloggers, their bark is worse than their bite. Depending on the magnitude of the situation, many a time, what seems like a heated exchange on the web is actually an insignificant portion of real life, simply because while most on the web may sound rather passionate about what they type about (just visit any random music video on YouTube and read the often angry comments about how the song/video could have been done better), most of it is just transient noise that will be filtered out in the long run.
Well, unless, of course, you’re Chevy Tahoe.
On the whole, this was the first time ever for me speaking in such an environment. Awesome learning experience, interesting insights into the way I process things too! I must say that I’ve realized numbers don’t make a different in audience size(beyond a certain point), as compared to proximity. Being on stage seems to put an invisible barrier around you that makes it all the less intimidating.
Tags: P&G, panel discussion, Gen Y, blogging, blog, technology, social media, trust, communication, marketing, internet,
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