In a previous life, P&G’s head of marketing, Ted McConnell would have been burnt for heresy. In a recent US conference he argued that ’social networks have no right to monetise their customer’s conversations’ and that ‘advertisers should be wary of encroaching their customer’s personal space on social networking websites’. His polemical attack on all things Facebook has stimulated a vigorous online debate, which was probably his intention all along.
Personally I have some sympathy with McConnell’s words of caution. Advertisers cannot resist what appears to them to be a captive audience and far too many treat social media as simply another communications channel into which they can push their commercial messages.
The good news for social media providers is that McConnell remains a supporter of branded applications, which he sees as standing outside consumers’ personal online space. Social media need not be a commercial-free zone … but as with all effective communication, the commercial content needs to be relevant and appropriate. Invading private or personal space is annoying, whether cold calling someone’s home, selling door to door or trying to elbow-in on somebody else’s online conversation.