Earlier today I wrote briefly about brands using Twitter to market themselves. So now I read in a MediaPost article that Skittles.com has changed its website. Normally, this would not be a hugely significant event... but their brand website is a Facbook page with a Twitter feed! I'm serious!
Read the whole MediaPost article here, but here is the most earthshaking part of it for me:
"Here's the message Skittles is sending: What consumers say about the brand is more important than what the brand has to say to consumers." WOW!
Granted, not a lot of people go to Skittles.com - less than 20k per month according to Compete - and they will probably be able to reach a lot more through Facebook and Twitter... but putting your brand image and message fully in the hands of social networks? Risky!
POSTSCRIPT: Two days after I originally wrote this blog, Skittles was forced to take down their Twitter feed because of an avalanche obscenities being Tweeted about Skittles and winding up on their homepage. This was not a deficult thing to predict when you look at who Skittles' customers are: kids! Kids think its funny to see bad words in print and do lots of bad stuff on the internet that their parents do not monitor.
The lessons? (with apologies to Jim Stearne at WAA)
* Understand your customer.
* Understand your brand.
* Share control.
* Be part of the conversation, don't just give it away to others.
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If you're interested in this sort of stuff, I'd recommend a book called Buying In by Rob Walker. Much of it has to do with how marketing has changed from being simply a message from the Brand to the Consumer, to being a conversation between the Brand and the Consumer. This leaves a lot of the messages about the brand up to the consumer to decide. Interesting stuff.