Jeremiah Owyang put together a great presentation
where he describes the importance for brands to scan the landscape and
understand the fish they are trying to catch. For most marketers doing
this sort of customer research and segmentation has always been part of
our approach for reaching the right audience.
Social media
however has changed the landscape when it comes to reaching customer
segments. Which is perhaps this is why we have seen such an emphasis on
things like influencer marketing and word of mouth recently. These
ideas are not new, however it has never been easier to identify who is
talking about your products, make an assessment of their ability to
influence others and engage directly in a conversation with them.
Marketers
are trying to dip their bait in the middle of Facebook and Twitter
streams with the assumption that if one "fish" in the school takes the
bait others will follow. Therefore increasing things like sales, leads
or brand engagement.
A couple of questions come to mind with all
this talk of marketers fighting to get in to the stream. Will the
"fish" begin to ignore the bait? or Will dipping your line into the
stream catch only the fish you want?
I am interested to hear
thoughts on how word of mouth marketing will evolve beyond simply
appearing in a Facebook or twitter stream?
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