Social Media and the concept of "Accidental Spokespeople".
I'm reading this great book right now that my boss lent me. It's called *Personality Not Included and it's written by Rohit Bhargava. I haven't read many (if any) marketing books, and I'm feeling like this book is a great intro. I'm only 60 or so pages into it, but here's what I figure it's about - "why brands need personality in this day and age to be successful". Bhargava talks about social media and the birth of the "accidental spokesperson". This person is someone inside or outside of a company that discusses the company just because they want to, and presumably are enthusiastic and passionate about it. Examples he uses are Intel employees who keep blogs about research, updates, and news regarding the company, Jared from Subway, and this guy named Armand who LOVES Moleskine notebooks. In fact, Armand loves the notebooks SO much that he keeps a blog called Moleskinerie where he discusses all the great things you can do with a Moleskine. Just a sidenote: I have a Moleskine notebook, too. They are the best.
Anyway, what Bhargava is saying is that all these people keeping blogs are amazing assets to the companies they belong to or are enthusiastic about. In this day and age, we rarely look to TV ads (if we even watch TV), newspaper ads, or flyers when we're thinking about buying a product, WE LOOK TO PEOPLE. We ask our friends, we check comment boards online, we ask a Yahoo! question and get a Yahoo! answer... We make it our status on Facebook, we tweet about it to our tweeple... You get what I (and everybody else) am saying. The world is changing, and these bloggers/tweeple/Facebookers are now our authorities.
How cool is that? We have so much power. If I write that I love Diet Pepsi SO MUCH (which I do... I was just drinking it while reading this book), and you read my blog and have never tried it but figure if I love it SO MUCH that maybe you will too, then maybe you'll drink it. I'm not saying you will for sure, but my blog might actually inspire that action. It's a really cool thing.
Social media is something I'm really starting to get into. Not in the sense that I'm registering for all the sites (because I mostly have already... at least all the popular ones), but I'm starting to reflect on its power more than ever. These aren't just sites that we waste our time on anymore. They are legitimate and powerful tools that we utilize to learn, help make our decisions, and keep in touch.
My mind is officially blown. Is yours?
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