Guest comment: Using social media for product development

Social media has made real steps of late to becoming more integrated into marketing activity. But there is still one area where we have not even begun to realise the potential presented by consumer-generated media: product development.

For years, product development groups have been conducted behind closed doors or with carefully selected focus groups - but as other disciplines of marketing have advanced, product development seems remarkably stagnant.

There are a few reasons for this:

Awareness - Even though most agencies have some degree of digital capability, there is still a general lack of understanding of all the different ways social media can be used to a marketer’s advantage.

Control - Many companies still exhibit an unwillingness to let go of even the smallest amount of control. The idea of opening up product development to online influencers falsely implies that all power is lost.

Trust – For the uninitiated, there is a lack of trust that comes with working online – together with the general understanding that information spreads quickly online.  For companies interested in keeping product information tight-lipped, this can be a nerve-wracking thought.

But like most misconceptions of social media, the points above are nothing to worry about. In fact, the benefits of incorporating social media into product development far outweigh any negatives.

A new perspective – So much of today’s information is shared online – to shut off involvement with the online community when developing your product is tantamount to crossing the road wearing a blindfold.  If you’re not engaging online, you could be excluding as much as 96 per cent of online UK population who make purchases over the Internet – the largest percentage of online shoppers and sharers in the world, according to a Pew survey last year.   (http://www.govtech.com/gt/312994)

Nip it in the bud - Engaging influential social media commentators in product focus groups offers a way of involving vocal taste makers early on in product inception. Since these are the people who will be talking about you online, it only makes sense to engage them from the beginning. 

Future Advocates - There is also the dual benefit of relationships being built that continue on when the product is released. If an influential blogger has been personally involved in the product conception stage, they are far more likely to view it positively and report online accordingly. The social media commentators themselves become loyal advocates for the product or service

Forward Planning - Incorporating social media movers and shakers can help develop future marketing campaigns.

At onlinefire, we recently completed a campaign for Panasonic called the Next Generation Talent competition, which asked UK students to design the next ad for the Panasonic Viera Home Hub television. 

The student-submitted entries were judged by a social media panel of tech, advertising and marketing bloggers. Based on the feedback given and a public vote, the winning ad will be shown on Channel 4 on 18^th March and has paved the way for a new Next Generation Talent competition to take place this year.

The social media panel themselves became strong advocates for Next Generation Talent and Panasonic, reporting on the initiative in-depth. This resulted in over 10 pieces of coverage, including a 6-page spread that would have never been seen without prior involvement in the planning stages of the competition.

Social media-based focus groups will never and should never replace 100 percent traditional controlled focus groups, but marketers need to realise that to fully understand their audiences, they have to know how those audiences interact online.  Working with bloggers and social media gurus helps give an insight into the early-adopting public who quite often make or break products in theses fast-moving times.  To ignore them not only cuts off invaluable insight, but hinders the inevitable benefits of positive word-of-mouth and buzz you should be receiving.

By Graham Lee

Joint Managing Director

Onlinefire