In this iMedia Brand Summit Forum, experts discussed how brands can participate in the new age of participatory media without disrupting the user experience.

User-generated content is a topic that probably deserves a dedicated conference all its own, which is why it was one of the more heavily attended break-out sessions on the second day of the iMedia Brand Summit in Lake Las Vegas.

Despite lasting only an hour that seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, moderator Doug Weaver of the upstream Group and presenter Jim Nail, Chief Strategy and Marketing office at Cymfony, covered many aspects of this exciting sector and, befitting the subject matter, inspired much participation from the audience.

Weaver warned the capacity crowd that the session wouldn’t quite follow the format outlined in the show guide, which was, “Social networks, which are segmented for special interest groups, hit at the essence of behavioral targeting. How can brands participate in this highly engaging environment without disrupting the user experience? How can brands be assured that the user-generated content they are associated with is clean?”

“What we’re really going to talk about,” he said, “is what the heck it really means and really encompasses and…what the heck marketers are supposed to do and not do with it.”

The problem, he said, is that social media and user-generated content are catch-all descriptions for many different participatory online environments. To kick things off, he asked Nail to outline the basics.

First and foremost, social media differs from all other media in that it’s created by “real people,” instead of journalists, professional authors, recognized experts, etc.

Secondly, social media is quite unique in how people consume it – through active participation rather than passive reception. Its distribution is open rather than controlled by subscription models of traditional media, and most importantly, creators of this type of media are drive by personal expression and interpersonal communication, rather than distribution information or entertainment.

As a results, marketers have to realize that the rules of communication with their customers have changed. When working in the social media and user generated content categories, marketers must realize that they’re engaging in a dialogue, not simply broadcasting their message. Those interactions have to have a human voice, not a corporate one, and have to avoid “marketing speak” at the risk of sounding “lame,” Nail cautioned.

Marketers also have to listen, not just talk to their customers in the realm of social and user-generated media, and, most importantly, be honest about their opinions and their identity.

It’s not just banner advertising on MySpace or creating a company profile on Facebook anymore; it’s figuring out the most appropriate and most effective ways to take advantage of the fantastic audience growth (read: consumer interest and engagement) of sites powered by consumers, such as YouTube, which went from zero to 20 million users in less than a year.

Just to put things in perspective, in its latest tracking data on fast-growing websites, covering July 2006, Nielsen//NetRatings found that user generated content sites (platforms for photo sharing, video sharing and blogging) comprise five out of the top 10 fastest-growing Web brands. Among the top 10 Web brands overall, MySpace is the fastest growing, increasing 183 percent, from 16.2 million unique visitors in July 2005 to 46.0 million in July 2006. Google ranks second, growing 23 percent, from a unique audience of 76.2 million to 94.0 million, and eBay rounds out the top three, increasing 13 percent, from 51.1 million to 57.8 million unique visitors.

Despite these figures, the levels of advertising spending are not yet monumental, but as with every existing sector of interactive advertising, the road ahead looks wider and sunnier. eMarketer estimates that marketers will spend $280 million on social network advertising in the US in 2006, and in 2010, US online social network ad spending will total nearly $1.9 billion, eMarketer projects. Not surprisingly, the largest chunk of that spending will go toward MySpace, which eMarketer estimates will generate $180 million in US ad revenue this year.

eMarketer also projects that globally, social network advertising will be an estimated $350 million business in 2006, rising to $2.5 billion in 2010.

Incidentally, according to Wikipedia, Pete Blackshaw of Nielsen BuzzMetrics claims to have coined the phrase "consumer-generated media." Also, the earliest mention of the phrase "consumer-generated media" appeared in a press-release issued by ShareYourWorld, Inc., which connected people who create digital media with those interested in licensing it, in March 2000. And, the earliest mention of the phrase "consumer-generated content" appeared in press-releases of the consumer review site MouthShut.com in early 2000.

GET THE PODCAST

• [RSS] Add the iMedia Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically (MP3)


• [MP3] Download the show (MP3)

Speaker(s):

Format: