Influx

Influx and many others have been following and reporting on the Marketing 2.0 trend which suggests a new open environment of participation between brands and their customers.

The catalyst of the internet has made all the possible and brands now have the power and potential to engage in real dialog.

A few days ago I was struck by this stunning stat from the BBC News as reported by Robin Hamman, who was commenting on a presentation given by Peter Horrocks, Head of the BBC newsroom.

“BBC News can get 10 – 20,000 emails and messages a day, this still
only, Horrocks says, represents around 1% of the audience…”

This suggests that we’ve only scratched the surface of consumer participation, obviously the BBC being a giant media company, is an extreme case.

It raises some interesting questions.

How can the BBC cope with that volume of participation?

How will it cope when it increases?

How does it or does it respond to the wisdom of the crowd, given that it’s only 1% of its audience?

If we shift over from the media to the marketing world, it appears that most marketing departments aren’t yet designed and organized to manage and cope with Marketing 2.0, most are still working and structured for a 1.0 world.

The Marketing Department is going to need to change radically, but there are some questions.

How do they make the transition?

When does the “tipping point” occur?

Marketing departments need fundamentally new skill sets, new positions/job titles and they are also going to need some smart technology to assist them.

Given how little bandwidth most departments have these days, it’s safe to assume that there are quite a few brands out there who risk damaging their reputations because they simply aren’t structured to cope with the new era of conversation and participation.

Posted by Ed Cotton