Amplify’d from www.socialmediatoday.com

The End of Corporate Social Media as a Novelty Tags: Managementsocial media comments       Posted December 28, 2010 by Joel Postman 0 Share  On October 6, 2006, A.G. Lafley, then CEO of consumer products giant Procter and Gamble, ushered in the age of corporate social media when he told attendees at the Association of National Advertisers conference, “Consumers are beginning in a very real sense to own our brands and participate in their creation. We need to learn to begin to let go.”   Thus formally began a four-year industry-wide transition that ended December 27, 2010, with the announcement that Big Fuel, a social media marketing agency hired by General Motors a few months ago, will be soon be doubling its Detroit staff to 30 people to support the GM account. With investments like that made by GM in Big Fuel, the corporatization of social media is complete. In addition to validating the influence and power of social media, and bringing GM and consumers closer together, social media efforts like this will more and more come under the heading of “business initiatives” not “special projects.” Social media marketing is increasingly subject to business oversight. It is measured for effectiveness, and programs that do not generate sales leads, subscriptions, revenue or whatever else they set out to do will be terminated, with some of the people responsible possibly being subject to the same fate. I’m not saying any of this is entirely new. Hundreds of large companies have made substantial investments in social media already, many of them in-house. But the fact that a company as large and traditionally conservative as GM is making a commitment of this size is significant. The Big Fuel/GM story is a meta story that solidly confirms the transition is done. Maybe it was finished six months ago, or a year ago. But it’s definitely done now. Read more at www.socialmediatoday.com

 

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