Social Media - dead or alive? The Risks

In the introduction article, we looked at some facts, figures and studies around SoMed. As a next step, I evaluate the risks and chances to get a realistic picture. And finally, we have a small glimpse into a possible future of SoMed. 

We have all seen examples of online bullying (the trolls), fake news, misinformation or biased influencers. The credibility of some brands and their reputation has been damaged. Gartner foresees an increasing mistrust against the big brands and famous influencers. Well, if somebody pays your 6-day luxury wedding, why would you NOT promote their products? ?? Although marketers seem to turn to small-scaled influencers, the future of influencers in general is uncertain. Also, Accenture warns about reputation risks and to be aware of business, regulatory, legal and market risks. 

We just have to look at recent events here and around the world. Such an influencer shit storm incident just happened in Zurich. The result? Instead of the relevant topic to the world, this incident was the talk of the week. Under the pressure of SoMed users, one company quit the influencer's contracts without evaluating the situation. Is it right, that companies give such enormous power to ONE single user? And how can it be, that a post justifies death threats in return? The boundaries to illegal actions are crossed at that point and this is far away from using the right to free speech. 

On the 22nd of June, the newspapers celebrated the “less-than-full arena” at Trump's Rally and credited TikTok users for it. Given that Trump has a huge election campaign budget, I personally think the campaign workers did eliminate many of those fake registrations. Maybe it was rather the fear of a COVID infection that kept many from attending? I personally would not go to a place where according to Trump half a million people mingle. Nevertheless, it is a good example, what users can achieve - to be heard loud and clearly.

In Switzerland, we voted on the topic of cyber mobbing and personal shit storm attacks. And the result was clear. Today, such incidents and the trolls can be legally pursued. Having that said, I really like to differentiate the distressed consumer with a real problem communicating that in a highly emotional way. And yes, it is sometimes not easy to find out - troll or distressed consumer? In any case, clear communication policy and constructive handling of the situation is needed. 

Since May 2018 the GDPR leads to potential legal risks. The European law does protect consumers from unwanted advertisement floods and obligates the brands to be transparent about the usage of the collected data. This stopped many of the mass email sendings. Getting consent from consumers for ads is a new challenge for marketers, but one that can be solved. However, some SoMed platforms are still not free from data privacy security issues and data in-transparency. Brands spend a lot of money for nice shots of their products. And lately, there was a discussion, that a brand could even lose the rights on content posted there. Imagine, what that means for the consumer data… Did you ever try to protect your data usage on FB or Insta? Let me know your experience with that. 

Without that willingness to share personal data, personalization is difficult. Gartner predicts, that the buzz around personalization will drop by 2025 due to the lack of ROI, partly because only 40% have a clear personalization strategy and roadmap. Although done right, personalization does work wonders in ROI. But more about that in the next episode…

The same underlying reason lies in a modest ROI for marketing campaigns. The costs trying to decode the growing complexity of the intransparent underlying algorithms is very high. And consumers started to undermine these algorithms. One guy even created a traffic jam (wearing a lot of phones on him) and made google recommend an alternative route. 

There are lots of black scary clouds appearing on the sky for SoMed and the immediate reaction is to run and get shelter. But please wait for the next article, before you put on your running shoes: The Chances of Social Media.

How does your risk analysis look like? I am happy to help you to improve and innovate your consumer journey. I'm looking forward to your DM on Linkedin.