I’m a little late in posting this, but about two months ago Mashable posted a pretty good piece about why brands struggle with social media. In the comments area, Brad Szollose made this important observation:

Social Media creates a 1:1 peer-to-peer network of like minded people. This scares the hell out of big brands for 2 reasons: They want to control what is said about their products, and it costs very little to maintain a good conversation – just make great products!

Marketing at peer-to-peer networks, with it’s raw language is seen as intrusive and fake. Like selling Amway at your HS reunion.

Given that social media has been shown to be a key driver of brand awareness and reputation, one can’t help but wonder why there’s as much reticence as there is on the part of brands. I hope it stems not from ignorance but from the recognition that doing social media wrong is worse than not doing it at all.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 7:54 am and is filed under Internet Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Social Media.