Letting customers tell the brand story

What's becoming clear is the brands that will succeed in social media -- and all media will become social -- are those that can get customers to tell great stories about them. Sometimes, that simple idea gets twisted by some specialists into the very different proposition that "advertising is dead." It's not, it's just changing. With Windows 7, Microsoft finally, after screwing up with Vista and XP, appears to have a good operating system shipping. Its campaign is around customers telling the story. That will be told through regular TV and other forms of old-school advertising, of course, but people will even be skeptical of that. Just see how the tech blogs labored to discredit "Lauren" in the "I"m a PC" ads as an actress. Social media offers the opportunity to somewhat counter that by surfacing real people's feedback. That's why I was intrigued by the campaign on Facebook today. Microsoft is running engagement ads with a seven-second video of customers raving about Windows 7. It also invites people to fan Windows. Clicking on the ad brings people face to face with what other people are saying. It's a small thing but I think part of this two-way advertising revolution: brands using advertising to show what others are saying about their products rather than what them brand is saying about them. You can imagine Facebook will end up adding an option to bring people what to what people what those in their network are saying about a brand's products. The Windows 7 page also pulls in feeds from around the Web.

Comments

[Max Kalehoff]

Not sure why, but I'm more intrigued by the fact you have 276 unread messages in your Facebook inbox. I"ve noticed that a lot lately. What does that say about intra-social-network email?

[Ben Kunz]

@MaxKalehoff -- social media is email without the commitment. Which is why none of us keep up with ticking off inboxes at Facebook.

@BMorrissey -- At first glance this looks like a bold move. But I bet Microsoft tested this very carefully with market research behind the scenes before going public. Microsoft is in a unique position in which it is rebounding from an awful product with a strong offering, and has a base of fans and vendors who are rooting for it to return. Momentum is on its side, so yes, it makes sense to launch a page.

However, I think many brands will have a challenge building the same momentum. There is risk -- that people could flame the product, or be apathetic (like major banks you see with just a few thousand lukewarm fans). Check out the fan page for Bank of America and you'll see anemia. For Microsoft, one of the largest technology companies in the world, to launch what they now know is (finally) a hot product and expect lots of happy responses seems a low-risk move.

I'd be interested, also, to see if any companies are gaming such systems. I'd have to believe the temptation is huge to have several hundred loyalists seed the feedback loop with glowing reviews, sort of like the Amazon book reviews written by college friends of the author. Impossible to prove ... but oh, the temptation must be there.

[Alan Wolk]

Glaringly obvious though it may seem, making a product or service that doesn't suck is really the only way to ensure the kind of social media success you've demonstrated here. Paid advertising can make prospects aware of your product, help differentiate you from an equally well-liked competitive product (think Coke & Pepsi) but it can't force people to like a product that's just not very good. The problem is that social media is not nearly all-pervasive enough to put every miserable product out of its misery to to raise every deserving one to glory.

@Ben: Your example is no doubt correct for many smaller brand (and unknown authors), but Microsoft is such a behemoth and Windows 7 such an anticipated launch, I suspect Microsoft's friends and family could barely put a dent in the conversation around it.

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So, has Microsoft finally gotten it right? I have been skeptical about Windows7 because of Microsoft's its past failure to deliver but base on the responses I have been seeing, I might finally try it out to see what the craze is all about.

[Leslie]

It's all about trying to find a brand that will let you express yourself. Gen Y is even creating their own personal brands with social media and blogs.

More info @
http://www.thenextgreatgeneration.com/category/brands/

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