People are funny, fickle creatures. Here’s just a few examples:
- – People say that UGC is, “dead and dumb”. Then, Pepsi gets blasted for coming out with a new logo that wasn’t created by UGC.
- – People scream for honesty and authenticity. Business models like Buzz Logic and PayPerPost (aka Izea) appear so brands can be honest about paying bloggers for reviews. People still get angry.
- – People want brands to join in the Social Media games, then get mad at them for promoting their brand, not using social media the “right way” or reaching out to “influencers” to help.
- – People sit here and whine about Chris Brogran’s sponsored post for Kmart, but don’t find issue with Razorfish’s announcement to patent a social media measurement?
The need/want to monetize social media will NEVER go away. If a brand is going to spend money, especially in these times, there needs to be some sort of ROI. More importantly, the majority of social media “experts” are self-employed. They either need incremental cash sources (i.e. Affiliate marketing, Google AdSense) or a way to prove to their clients that social media is valuable and “safe”. Therefore, you have two options:
- Quit bitching. If you really dislike what a company’s doing, offer CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Be nice about it. Teach them various ways to use the medium or offer suggestions on other ways to approach social media.
- Make up your mind. Don’t tell a brand you don’t like x and when they do c (aka the opposite of x) still get mad at them. Are you really confused as to why that’s frustrating?
Well said… this is something I have been distraught by for some time, and it is nice to hear someone voice a similar opinion. The social media frenzy has inculcated a vehement anti-corporation knee-jerk reactionary mentality, where companies that are making honest forays into social media are getting blasted. I can just hear the thousands of social media voices screaming FAIL! in unison.
Just out of curiosity though, I am a Razorfish employee, and I wonder what you find to be wrong with our social media measurement patent. You can shoot me an email if you’d like.
Daniel-
Actually, I don’t find fault with the patent. I liken it to Atlas’s system for measuring online media. But, that announcement came out at a similar time of the Kmart/PayperPost fiasco. In terms of knee jerk reactions, I thought the Razorfish announcement would surely get more attention… I’ve been using PayPerPost-esque models for 3+ years, to me that’s not newsworthy. Announcement of social media measurement patent? That’s buzzworthy. That has conflict written all over it, but few took the bait
The sad thing regarding the Razorfish announcement is it simply proves that we haven’t covered any real ground in the last 12 – 13 years. We are still relying on cookies as a means for tracking. Until we can get beyond the cookies reliance, we’ll be screwed.