Business - Written Monday, May 24, 2010 by Denis Hancock - 4 Comments

Might social media give marketers more control than ever before?

When it comes to the impact of social media on marketing, I’ve been hearing phrases like “the customer is now in control!” more and more these days. But frankly, I don’t buy it. On one hand, I believe the customer has been, and always will be, in control – after all, what they do or don’t buy has always been kind of important. But even setting that to the side, it seems to me that social media give marketers more control than ever before, rather than less.

The reason I believe this is fairly simple. When I think of the word “control”, I immediately think of the word “power”. When I think of “power”, I think of “knowledge” (as in the latter is the former). When I think of “knowledge”, I think of “information”. And when I think through what social media enables, from a marketing perspective, time and again I see better information, more knowledge, and more power. In turn, that looks like more control to me – rather than less.

I have more thoughts on this, but wanted to stop there and see if anyone believes this “customer is in control” argument, in relation to social media, might be wrong. And if you want to hear a few more of thoughts on these (and related) marketing subjects, check out my webinar on Tuesday.