The head of interactive and innovation at P&G, Ted McConnell, added to the downbeat buzz on the monetization of social networks. Here’s a pretty biting, yet insightful comment, captured in a recent AdAge article:
“I think when we call it ‘consumer-generated media,’ we’re being predatory,” he said. “Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”
While I personally take exception to his perspective, I’ll restrict my comments to the local social space.
The overall challenge is very real - social media is conversational by nature. Whether through user-publishing, commentary, or a variety of communications techniques, it’s all about engagement between and amongst users.
The challenge, in my opinion, is how to cull and add value to the “commercial conversations”. A term I coined years ago for some early work with Jabber applications, the concept is to differentiate between the chatter referenced by McConnell, and the conversations which indirectly or directly reference businesses, products or shopping needs.
Local search suffers from an acute lack of shopping content from which a user (or a search algorithm) can confidently make a purchase suggestion or conclusion. Social applications form a (the?) critical “gap filling” opportunity in local media. The context for making a purchase decision can be aided by consumer reviews, enhanced by consumer-to-consumer dialog, and advanced by consumer-to-business conversations.
I agree with the generalization that social media is fundamentally challenged by the nature of interrupting the conversation. The opportunity - particularly in local media - is to apply the tools and technologies to build the content bridges, and instigate the conversational needs between consumers, and with local businesses.
By virtue of the role social media can play in filling in missing information in the swiss cheese world of local shopping, it forms a mission critical element of any local media business’ publishing strategy.
