What is Consumer Generated Media REALLY?

The ad industry is calling Twitter, Facebook, individual blogs, forums, and personal videos “CGM,” or Consumer Generated Media. It’s convenient to categorize and label this mess, but it’s only semantics. These items are the same conversations and shared experiences that people have always had. The difference is that now a lot of this activity is taking place online.

As a result of these conversations taking place via keyboards, ‘CGM’ lives forever and is readily searchable…and that’s (understandably) scary to a lot of businesses. Rumors can damage a brand if they’re shared with others in ‘real time’ on platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The opinion of one upset customer on Yelp can live forever in the search results for your business name. The video posted by a rogue employee can go viral overnight, embarrassing an entire chain of nationally known restaurants.

Of course, it’s not all bad – some people have used the power of CGM to make mountains of money and/or achieve international fame. Susan Boyle, anyone?

The key for business owners is to recognize the importance of so-called CGM and to always be in control of the conversation around your business, product, or service (or at least be in control as much as is possible). Here’s what everyone needs to know about CGM:

1. You actually can’t control anything. It’s obvious really, but I’m always surprised by the number of people who think they can make people talk (or stop talking) online. We can always influence the conversation, but we can never control it.

2. Get involved where people are talking (or are most likely to start talking). Is there a place online that your customers are congregating? Forums, niche websites and blogs, popular or influential Twitter personalities, Facebook fan pages and groups, etc.? Start participating in those place now. This will educate you to what customers are saying and thinking. If you participate the right way (see my list of 7 social marketing tips), you will boost your business and make it a lot harder for someone to bash you in these communities in the future (at least bash you with a high degree of success).

3. Track every mention. Setup Google and Yahoo alerts for your name, brand, business name, names of your product or services, and if your market area is small enough (or if your reach is really broad), all mentions of your industry in the neighborhood, city, state, or region. Next, be sure to read these alerts every day.

4. Respond to mentions, but never react. Reacting never works well for me (my temper can run short). I realize the difference between a response and a reaction is also semantics, but my point is to be smart about how you respond to positive and negative mentions of your business or brand. Reactions are rarely correct when they’re generated by my keyboard.

5. Be human and act human. I see a lot of automated participation on Twitter, forums, and blogs, and I have to tell you it rarely (if ever) works. People tune out automated systems pretty quickly, so be human. When someone compliments you, say thanks. When someone calls you out on something you’re doing wrong, apologize. Act human. Easy, right?

Questions? Comments?