fitzroyalty

I recently wrote about the power of conversation in social meda and how one example, where the Ftzroy restaurant The Commoner engaged with its clients online, demonstrates how a business can participate. I don’t claim to be an expert in this; like another participant I prefer the term social media explorer.

Since then I have been reading more about the concept of media conversations, including the excellent articles The Value of Online Conversations, Will The Real Social Media Expert Please Stand Up? and Cultural Voyeurism and Social Media by Brian Solis.

One of the best observations Solis makes is that engagement is a privilege. Businesses cannot expect or assume that their clients and customers will passively view their advsertising. Media, public relations, advertising and marketing all seem to be merging into a conversation that is mediated and aggregated by all participants.

The important thing to do is to particpate, and to create content as well as responding to user generated content. I would also caution against falling for the trap of targeted paid advertising on review aggregation sites like Yelp or Rayv. They attempt to hold your brand captive by allowing you to advertise on their site, which allegedly makes the bad reviews disappear as long as you keep paying. That sound like old media control, not new media participation.

The commercial aggregator sites will alienate their participants and viewers with their dishonesty and crash and burn. Don’t believe the hype. You don’t need to pay them to manipulate the community. Online social networking, at least in terms of hyperlocal content, is all about the real world. Which restaurants to eat at. Where to experience things that people similar to yourself also like.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 12:05 am and is filed under Fitzroy, business, customer service, hyperlocal, information technology, media, social networks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.