Have Gannett & Ripple6 Found A Solution for SM Monetization?
On November 12, Gannett acquired Ripple6, a provider of social media services. When a large corporation such as Gannett Co., Inc., has enough interest in a social media business to acquire it, news happens. However, for me the real story isn't the acquisition. The real story is why does an international news and information company want to get into the social media business.
I asked Ripple6 Marketing Director Chris Kieff to help me schedule an interview. On Monday, I spoke with Sang Kim, Founder and CEO of Ripple6. One of the questions I asked was why Gannett was interested in Ripple6.
"They saw a social media platform that uniquely serves the needs of all three main constituents: End Users, Advertisers, and Publishers" Kim says. "One of the ways I think about this is that generally media and publishing companies have had to pay attention to a shift from providing entertainment and information only to instead acting as a host of their services.
Their viewers and readers want to talk to other viewers and readers. Therefore, social media companies become a facilitator. Then we complete the circle of publishers, advertisers and consumers. As the interaction changes on the web, they (the providers of information and entertainment) will need to find value for their advertisers."
And then my bell rang. We spend so much time talking about social media tools and so little time thinking about objectives, goals and strategies that we seem stuck in tiny universes, each of them trying to out-blog or -out-Twitter the others. Meanwhile, Gannett and Ripple6 see a far different future for social media. One that helps a business meet and exceed its communities' wants and needs. Up to now, the problem for information and media companies has been to find a place for their advertisers. At the end of the day, businesses need to make money and that means ROI.
What the Future Might Look Like
My crystal ball isn't any larger than yours, but here is what I see based on the Gannett/Ripple6 relationship. Publishers of newspapers, magazines and books as well as entertainment media companies are struggling with the current situation. They can't control either the distribution or use of their products because of technology that most of us possess and they can't control price. Therefore, their revenues are running into a brick wall. They need to adapt social media but they also need to monetize it. No one stays in business long if their services are free. Gannett sees a solution through Ripple6's services, especially its Cloud Communities.
"Some of our really exciting innovations are in providing marketing and advertising solutions," Kim offers. "With a company like Gannett, we need to find ways to create opportunities for advertisers to interact with Gannett's communities.
"Cloud Communities™, for example, enable a brand to syndicate a community to dozens of web sites. People can enter a community and stay within that community while interacting with a variety of brands who come to them. Whether or not a person or a group of people choose to interact with that brand is entirely up to them.
"We aren't creating ads or pushing messages at community members. Clouds aren't a brand messaging affair but people coming together to get and to share information in any way they want, including the discussion of a company’s products and services."
There is little doubt that social media changes the way consumers can interact with companies online. Consumers have the ability to tune in to what they want and tune out what they don’t. That means that we marketers must find ways to talk with our customers, not at them. And we need to do that where they are, when they want to talk and how they want to talk with us. We need to interact and build relationships with our communities in their chosen place, not ours.
Cloud Communities create an environment where that can happen. The 2008 Business in Social Media Study by Cone, Inc. & Opinion Research Corporation reveals why we must understand the importance of technology such as Cloud Communities. The study shows that 85% of social media users believe companies should interact with them in social networks. That is strong evidence that we need to respond to in a variety of ways to meet and exceed those user’s wants.
According to a Ripple6 paper, research shows that people feel a stronger connection with, and are better served by, companies that interact with them online in a social environment. They want companies to help solve their consumer problems, to solicit feedback on products and services, and to develop new ways for customers to interact with the brands.
“Cloud Communities allow companies easy access to consumers in their own communities, where a brand has the opportunity to become a trusted part of the larger social network by providing information that the members of that community want,” Kim says.
And that’s the key to a company's success in using social media tools: becoming a trusted entity within the community. That means conversation, building relationships based on trust and credibility, and never ever selling products and services but instead offering information about those products and services only to those members of a community that want the information.
When asked to describe the impact of Cloud Communities in one sentence, Kim said: “Cloud Communities enable marketers to create a community for their brand and syndicate it (content and members) throughout multiple relevant social networks.”
Cloud Communities were launched in the past few months along with a service called Social Insights, which enables marketers to do research in existing social nets. Think of Social Insights as virtual focus groups but within a community of members who come to the group if and when they want to. Here’s an example of how this might work.
Currently, for example, Ripple6 is working with General Mills on MomsLikeMe.com to conduct consumer research for Cheerios. Members of the community receive either a private message (inside the system) or an e-mail from MomsLikeMe inviting them to join a private group in which companies and brands talk to them and get their feedback. The user chooses to take part or not.
If the user is interested, he or she may then answer a brief questionnaire for screening purposes (e.g., the brand may be looking for parents of toddlers, or teenagers, etc.). When a member accepts the invitation, the research group appears on their dashboard along with any other groups they belong to (e.g., local friends, church groups or larger regional or interest groups).
MomsLikeMe users typically are members of more than one group. The activity in the research group then appears in the member’s News Feed, just like activity in their other groups. This makes the interaction with the research group more normal and natural, and it fosters a higher degree of participation and involvement.
In my mind, these two services help to close the hole in loop between consumers, company brands and marketers. Whether or not Cloud Communities and Social Insights become the next big things depend on how consumers respond to them.
These are just some of the questions Ripple6 needs to answer to provide value within social media.
In closing the interview, I asked Ripple6 how they see their future. We think our future will be in a leadership position, and here are three reasons why:
- Our social media platform provides business value for marketers and publishers – not just a technology solution.
- Ripple Analytics – our proprietary solution – really sets us apart. (Ripple Analytics provides a simplified means to collect insights and identify areas for improvement in real time.)
- As part of Gannett, we think we’re better positioned with the resources to not only weather the economic downturn but to thrive in it.
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