In my last post, I briefly described an interesting phenomena that is occurring in today’s business climate. I believe we are seeing an emerging demographic of consumers: Passionate Fans.
I believe it truly began with MacWorld and the ever interesting PC vs. Mac debates. Suddenly, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were celebrities whose every movement represented their brand.I understand that there is a history of management representation (Lee Iacocca and Chrysler, who filed for bankruptcy today), but it has truly reached a fever pitch, or tipping point, with advances in social media.
Some people really love their purchased products, and a select few love them so much they carry the banner of the manufacturer. Take a look at the picture below.
I don't know if this is real but...
Apple has built a brand of cool, innovative, expensive, and elitist technology (except for their iPod, they just want everyone to have 10 of those). Steve Jobs dresses, talks, and acts the part. And there are Apple users out there who dress, talk, and act the same company line. Only… they are the buyer, not the employee. I think it’s interesting. If you think I’m crazy, feel free to check out the blog of Fake Steve Jobs, or perform a Twitter Search for Steve Jobs. The largest account has over 49,000 followers.
Zappos.com is an online apparel store with a focus on service and customer satisfaction. I mentioned them in my last post. Their CEO, Tony Hsiesh, is a millionaire, and a seemingly cool guy. Their company has been listed as one of the most admired and most fun work environments in the country. I do not know Mr. Hsiesh, nor do I have any relation to Zappos. Can someone please explain to me why he is one of six people I follow on Twitter? He tweet’s about everything from Southwest Airlines, blankets, and swine flu (his most recent as of this post) to his attendance at Brittany Spears concerts to da Vinci quotations. And I’m not the only one who is caught up, he has over 500,000 followers on Twitter.
I read these tweets with a chuckle, wondering what this seemingly insignificant connection is doing to build his brand. Same goes for Sir Richard Branson, the CEO of Virgin Int’l. I knew he had an island, but I didn’t know he sponsored Formula One Race Car Teams, and good ones at that!
Heck, I even follow Shaquille O’Neal, and I’m thinking the genuine humor of his Twitter Account would tempt me into buying a sequel to his ill-fated rap attempt (Shaq-Fu if I’m not mistaken). It’s that good. These people are building their company brand through sheer personality, and people love it!
I would love to see the numbers for companies whose CEO’s are active in social media. I bet their seeing better revenues and higher customer satisfaction, even if they haven’t changed one aspect of their business model. I guess you can call it the “Tom” effect from the good old MySpace days. If you were a MySpacer, you always had at least one friend! Tom Anderson didn’t even own the company by the time I joined, but he was still my first friend.
The building of Tom’s personality (or avatar, if you will) via MySpace turned into countless press releases, news stories, and blog posts. I’m relatively confident the Harvard Business Review will be writing case studies on this very topic, if they haven’t already.
I would love to see some market research into consumer behavior and spending habits before and after experiencing companies in the social media atmosphere. I for one believe that most would be more likely to buy from someone they are “friends” with or that they are “following.” Am I wrong?
Facebook realized the power of social media in advertising/brand building with the launch of their ill-fated Beacon project. They were confident if your news feed told you what people were buying, you would probably follow suit. Unfortunately, from a learning standpoint, the program didn’t last long enough to glean any real results. Henceforth Facebook has followed the Twitter model and just allowed you to talk about anything you want via Status Updates. Let’s see where that goes!
As I watched the NBA playoffs on TNT, I noticed that on their station graphics, they have both the Twitter and Facebook icons. They also have the announcers mention that TNT coverage of the playoffs extends onto these mediums. I mean, we are watching a live basketball game on the television, and the station is reminding us we can get updates in 140 characters or less (Twitter) if we so choose. I want to call this stuff revolutionary, but I’m not quite prepared to do that. They can’t make money…
Twitter has just started developing a revenue model. Facebook is close to breakeven, but by no means profitable. I find this interesting in comparison to the people and companies utilizing these services successfully to improve their products. Where is it all going to go?
On a blog note, today has been the most active day in my year plus history, which is what prompted me to write a second post. Tell your friends! Make comments! I just might crack 100 views for the day, in which case, I’m going to celebrate.
This post is probably disjointed and for that I apologize, but I find the interaction of business and social media to be fascinating and would love to learn more about it.
I read a while back that Gates was looking to do something like what you have Apple doing. He was looking at starting a private elementary school in Philadelphia and giving each student a Laptop (with GPS in them if they got stolen). Creating an atmosphere were teachers could get more involved in conversations with parents when the child is having homework issues. Primarily web based classrooms, but not in a satellite atmosphere…interesting concept, not sure if it got off the ground.
But I also have noticed with Twitter that there is business developing there, I for one have used to for several professional contact which in turn have already generated revenue for the company…so not directly purchasing but it does work in the same means.