My Blog » To be successful in the social media space, brands should be customer focussed

Last week I was asked if Webjam has a widget that would enable a publisher to ‘nick’ forum members from a popular blogging site for their commercial community. If only it were that simple. The reason why the popular blogs are attracting thousands of users is that they offer relevant and original content that users find useful. And they have been built up over time, discovered by people following links when searching for information that interests them and peer recommendation.

But this view fundamentally misses the point of social media. Rather than thinking in terms of old media - i.e. pure e-commerce and ad-funded models, brands that are having success in the social space are thinking longer-term. Rather than simply starting from the position of how to increase their CPM rates, they are thinking about building brand loyalty by engaging with customers to find out what they like or dislike and then using this information to develop totally new lines of products and services; thus creating opportunities for new, never-before realised revenue streams. Going with the political theme, brands should now be asking ‘what can I do for my customers, rather than what can my customers do for me’.