Original Article by David Nelles
In an interview with AdAge magazine Jimmy Wales gives his estimation about marketers’ strategy of mass collaboration in digital platforms like wikia.com. But Walles also thinks that the real success of this media is often overshadowed by marketers’ fear of losing control. Thereby, brands are still not able to enter into a real direct dialog with users in user generated media.
The fear of losing control doesn’t only apply exclusively to Wiki platform, but rather to the entire area of user generated media. This kind of fear resulted from marketers’ way of thinking that they could control their brands message, just like they did back then before social media surfaces. Well could they do it? The answer is a plain simple No. After all, social media is only a consequent shift of social interaction into a digital environment. Marketers are mistaken if they actually believed that they could control their brands communication back then. Even before social media, brands were already subjected to various discussions by consumers and print media. The difference in social media is that the critical voice of consumers for the affected company is instantly visible. Feedbacks about offered services or products should not ignite fear and loathing for marketers in charge in the company. Social media offers the chance of digital consumer conversations for brand’s benefits. Hence, it was never before so easy for companies to achieve consumer insights.
.