Do you know
where your children are? You could if you had the power of something as simple
as a social network. Why, you would be able to see who they are hanging out
with based on the photos they post using Instagram, find out what they are
thinking by following them on Twitter, see where they are using the GPS feature
on your smart phone. Of course to get this information, you will have to give
up some information about yourself. How old are you? Are you male or female?
Are you married, single or divorced? Who are your family members and your
friends? Where were you educated? What music do you like and dislike? What are
your political and religious leanings? It all adds up to the profiling of you
for the purpose of providing marketers with a clear target to which they will
try to turn a sale.
If you are
my age, this is all feeling a bit Orwellian. Big Brother is keeping an eye on
all of us, dropping cookies on our computers to keep score on what we search,
what we like, where we click and what we post. He is scanning the photos we
post on Facebook to see who we are hanging out with and making some assumptions
about their likes compared to ours. He is also looking for those brand
connections in everything we do. Did you view a funny ad on YouTube for a
certain brand of potato chips? He knows. Did you do a Google search for a new
car? He has it in his database. The level of sophistication in profiling
everything we do on an electronic device has many people asking, "Is there
anything we can do that is private anymore?" Not if you are doing it on a
web-based product.
There is a
new normal in marketing that has come about because the companies we use to
connect with each other have become so good at getting people to give them all
kinds of personal information in exchange for using their services. In turn,
these companies have become big because advertisers can very specifically
target their audience. Gone are the days when you scattered your marketing message
to the masses hoping to get 1% who would engage with you while 99% ignored you.
In marketing, we now have the capability to define the target narrowly to find
prospective clients. We also have a generation of people who are coming of age
that have no problem whatsoever with the watchful eye of Big Brother. They not
only have no problem with it, they welcome it. Why would someone give up so
much private information about themself? I am sure there are many reasons, but
one has to do with convenience. If I tell someone all about me to the point
they have me profiled so that only the things I really want to purchase are
offered to me, why not let some gargantuan search engine/social media/phone
company on the inside of all of my personal information? As a consumer, I'm
exchanging my privacy for the convenience of being offered only the brands I
like. I don't have to think about it, just click and purchase.
Like it or not, the new normal
is what some people have labeled as social voyeurism. If you are in charge of
marketing for your company, your understanding and involvement in how all of
this works is key to your future in our industry. So what are you doing in
terms of social media marketing? Are you advertising to the people who
"like" or "follow" you? Are you using tools that help you
engage with your customers? The reality is, the new media is not going away any
time soon and neither is the new way of thinking about social voyeurism. To
embrace it is to embrace the future of marketing.
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Photo by Brian A. Jackson