social networks are the new squeeze toy for market research
There I said it. Its true, at least in my honest opinion. Social Networks are the new squeeze toy for marketers. A whole new wave of wealthy information is out there on you, me, them, us.. its like massive canvas and everyone just about everyone is drawing, scribbling, putting their two cents in. Its a marketers dream. No need to hunt for information on who your customers are, they’re telling you everyday. Everytime you read a blog, listen to a podcast, watch vlog, check out bloglines bookmark listing or look at someones all consuming reading now list, or listen to someones last.fm station or check out their flickr photostream.. yer gettin it, a bit of data you didn’t know, handed to you on a silver platter.
You’d hope that now with the infrastructure being laid out that marketers could create and launch better products and services with such open’ness happening on the net.. or will they? Surely they realize the scene thats unfolding before them. You could profile just about anyone who takes part in social networks, create your social blueprint of them, but the early adopter, the new guy, the something gal profile persona in a jiffy. Heck craft a savy API aware tool and you could get the net to do it for you.
I bet they are already there. The problem now is sifting thru all of it. My life cache sounds great but what does it do for me if I cant sort it out. As the social network tools continute to refine the process of connecting all of us in new and sometimes overly redunant ways they too are running into the why block more and more. Some don’t understand it or simply dont see it and launch their service in a me too fashion. Like they too have a staple in the race to win the hearts and minds of all. Others are reaching the max, where to go from here, what do we do now?!
Marketers still win either way. The new squeeze toy is here, SQUEEZE me the net says, the blog demands it, the photostream needs to be seen, the podcast wants to be listened to, the vlog demands to be watched. We all want to be seen. We have presence! We exist damnit. In our efforts to be seen we hand marketers all inclusive pass into our lives and theres not much we can do about it really. This is the next step. You can’t be a part of the big picture unless you sign off on everyone seeing your picture.
It’s also a good time experiement in fooling marketers. No doubt the PR and propaganda machine of the net is just as powerful. Manipulation via the blogosphere will continue. People will try and use the mass connected goodness to their favor by creating false viral information, like a stream of tasty skittles with unknown flavors attached to them, how can you not take a taste, ooo donkey.. bad flavor, but ya gotta taste it.
Everything is up for a taste these days. Do I need Friendster, Linkedin, Imem, Yahoo360, Caster, Dogster, FallinDownTheStairsSter, Flickr? Well I do use flickr. But theres a whole crap load of STERS out there and they all what a piece of me, or more so… I’m wildy curious about them. Maybe thats the next wave of squeeze toy goodness for marketers, dont actually advertise your product any more, create a social network around it, and lure them in indirectly. Or take up residence inside a social network to push your views, your images, your sounds, your visuals, midly influence the whole over a 18 month period and then retest your unknown paricpants… do they realize the water is spiked!