2009 was a brilliant year for Sulmoz and me. Different clients had entirely different requirements out of their social media marketing efforts. I enjoyed waking up to a new day of creating and learning. That’s 365 great days. As we roll into 2010, I want to quickly write about what I intend to do in this space:

I plan to empower more and more brands.

Why?

In its true essence social media is meant to bring brands and consumers closer to each other. Through real listening and real engagement. I’ve learnt that the fewer middle-men (women!) in the process, the better.  I’ve met a lot of “agencies”, “experts”  and the rest in the last year to understand that social media is being spun into this big, elusive, magical thing to brands who would rather have someone else deal with it. I don’t want to be that someone else. Unlike advertising campaigns which can actually be outsourced to agencies, a large chunk of social media marketing is being real and genuine. And who is better prepared for that role that the brand representatives themselves?

So this year, I’m going to put in a lot of time, energy and effort into taking this knowledge about social media to brands. My intention is to equip them with the understanding and tools to take this on themselves with my role a merely supporting one – providing guidance, input and insight as and when required. So as the Chinese proverb goes:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

In two words, I am: deeply excited.

Image Courtesy: cproppe, Flickr

Five years ago, it was unimaginable to see a famous, renowned director create an explanatory video and upload it on YouTube. On January 3rd 2010, it actually happened. Rajkumar Hirani, one of Bollywood’s well-known editor, director and screen-writer was seen in a video titled Rajkumar Hirani breaks silence on 3 Idiots & Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone. In this 8 minute clip Mr. Hirani takes his viewers through the various points of contention around the controversy (for the unitiated, read here and see this for starters) and offers clarifications. Typically, big-wigs were never required to clear the air and/or break their silence. They had enough clout. At the most there would be a press conference, interviews – the regular route. Except this time, its different. Its different because firstly Chetan Bhagat is a celebrity himself in the literary space. The other more important differentiating factor is that he’s social media savvy. His Twitter handle has over 42,000 followers, his blog is well-read (check the number of comments on the last five blog posts). In short he has a substantial online presence which he has used to communicate with his community of fans.

So what has that done? Well it has leveled the playing field. It has turned the notion of controlling information and communication channels on its head. When a seeming wrong was done, the other side had tools, a voice and a fan base to counter-argue with.

There is a significance to this controversy that I’m hoping to draw out. It can serve as a huge lesson for brands (atleast the smart ones!). Lets port this analogy into a corporate setting. Let’s say Rajukumar Hirani is a huge corporation and Chetan Bhagat is a customer. Make that a jilted customer. The consumer feels he has been wronged and wants the wrong undone. A few years ago, there wasn’t much he could do. Today is a different story. He can energize his already active online presence and use it to offer a detailed account of his experience, provide facts and invite participation from his community. Given the inherent nature of social media, things DO tend to go viral, here’s a random tweet and a not so random blogpost for example.

Eventually the big corporation will feel itself dragged into a medium that it is unfamiliar with (notice the comments on the YouTube video are closed?) and offer one knee-jerk reaction after another.

Social media makes brands flinch for this very reason: its transparent, it accords equal status to everyone and most of all, its here to stay. Perhaps a better approach would be to be part of the conversations from the get-go, way before its time for damage control.

I’d love to hear your take.