The humility of the digital marketer

The digital marketer cannot skip social media because that’s where conversations are actually happening

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Humility is not a word one normally associates with the marketing profession. The nature of the function does not necessarily promote it as a virtue. Marketing usually used to be a sermon delivered from a bully pulpit to a heterogeneous congregation, not all of whom were necessarily interested in the content. Fast forward to the digital era and virtually every aspect of the above construct changes.

For starters it’s no longer a one-to-many monologue, rather its a one-to-many-to-many conversation Traditionally, marketing was about the message and the medium. The medium or more correctly the media mix was always unidirectional, be it print, television or outdoor. The message was developed keeping an imaginary entity in mind – the psychographic profile. Thus direct interaction with the customer was never a part of the scope of the marketing function. The advent of social media changed all that. The medium became ‘social’ and hence omnidirectional. The original message might be from the marketer, but the reaction to the message in the form of comments or posts in various social media channels is turning marketing monologues into conversations where the marketer may not even be a participant.

Which can spread virally
The world becoming a digital village means that if the conversation piques the interest of enough number of people, it can go viral. Websites such as the ‘what happens in an internet minute’ site maintained by the good folks at Intel give a fair indication of the exponential speed at which a truly viral message can travel. Every marketer dreams of conceptualising and executing a positive viral campaign. Conversely, every marketer also loses sleep over the possibility of a negative conversation about his/her brand going viral.

You don’t own the pulpit any longer
There was a time when the marketer had control over the platform from which the message was aired. A negative comment on the company website, for instance, could be taken down. But when the messaging is on social media or when the conversations about the brand are happening on social media, the marketer ceases to have any control. The brand is just another user of the social media platform and has to comply with the norms and rules of that platform. And the digital marketer cannot skip social media because that’s where conversations are actually happening.

The congregation is no longer a heterogeneous mass
When a marketing message is aired, it may go out to a heterogeneous audience. But as conversation around the message grows, the audience starts becoming homogenous – since only interested parties join the conversation. The implication for the digital marketer is that the content of the messaging better be right, because the participants in the conversation will discuss only matters that are of interest to them.

You have to play Legato, not Staccato
Unlike in the past, marketing in the digital age doesn’t stop with the messaging, it actually starts after the messaging is done. Gone are the days of staccato notes, where the marketing calendar consisted of discrete and discontinuous elements spread over time, with not much happening in between. Now, marketing is 24/7 and marketers are forced to play legato, with a significant amount of time spent in brand presence management.

Some have humility thrust up on them…
A sense of humility that stems from a keen awareness of changed market realities is essential for digital marketers to survive and thrive in this brave new world.

- By Harry Jose, Head Of Marketing, Infosys BPO

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.