The Social Consumer
In this post I will define The Social Consumer, describe its behavior and explain why it’s crucial to engage this segment via the Interest graph.
The Social Consumer has been evangelized by Brian Solis and other thought leaders for a few years now as the most important consumer segment in contemporary social marketing. This is why.
The Social Consumer is a person who makes purchase decisions based on peer recommendations on social media.
The Social Consumer is a direct “product” of the social web. These people are socially active on multiple social networks, content discovery platforms, blogs, etc. They constantly share favorite content, let the social graph know their whereabouts via foursquare, favorite videos on YouTube, music sets on SoundCloud, etc. Being a social consumer is all about sharing. A bit of friendly spam hasn’t heart anyone, right?
The Social Consumer will notify the Twitter/Facebook follower/friend base straight away if: an unfriendly bartender gave a poorly washed glass, a brand new Burberry jacket has deteriorated in a month after purchase or someone was unreasonable at work, etc.
The Social Consumer is open, friendly and transparent in exchanging and sharing information with peers. They don’t think twice before broadcasting details of their personal lives online. That’s because they trust their peers, trust the social web and feel the urge to share. Do you know people like that? To be honest, I think I’m starting to become one of them.
It’s exactly this openness, transparency, trust and love for the Social that makes The Social Consumer segment an ideal distributor for various content: marketing content, personal content and/or any other content. As long as it’s interesting, The Social Consumer will broadcast it to the world.
Taking into consideration that they are well connected and influential among thousands of friends and followers, the preferred piece of content can be spread immensely over a relatively short period of time. And all of it is virtually cost free.
Content distribution is just one piece in a huge puzzle of how an engaged social consumer is able to benefit your organization. Direct market research, product testing, product evangelism, brand PR, community management, damage control, etc., etc., etc. The Social Consumer is able to do it all by living normal social lives without extra effort, because this is who they are.
Therefore, I believe that The Social Consumer is essential mediator of a new-wave marketing communications. Engaging with The Social Consumer is the obvious challenge. And the answer to it, in my mind, is to map current interests of the Social Consumer and monitor how it changes to target your marketing efforts accordingly, to achieve maximum engagement. In other words, it’s the Interest graph.
Post by @daumis2475
Co-Founder @ Pinevio
