Consumer Created Content The New 34DDD

Hearing Joe Jaffe talk about the three C's of consumer created content with Pete Blackshaw and Jackie Huba on his Across the Sound podcast, we were reminded of having once said to a male co-worker in front of a female co-worker in reference to something completely business-related and without regard to the the female co-worker's very curvaceous figure, "three D's are better than one." Needless to say, awkward smirks and giggles followed. Thankfully, that wasn't the case after listening to this week's Across the Sound podcast which discussed the many aspects of consumer created content, consumer generated media, citizen's media or whatever label you want to place on the trend.

What's very clear and what we've been writing about for quite a long time is, with the rise of various enabling tools and communities, consumers are now not only actively involved in generating vast, worldwide conversations about brands and a brands's content but they are creating reams of content themselves. Blogs, wikis, forums, social media sites, podcasts, Flicker, YouTube all have enabled people to move thought and content once relegated to small physical settings to the world's stage for all to consume.

In the podcast, Jaffe, Blackshaw and Huba explain and explore what's going on in the social media space ans what it means to mrketers. Of particular note is what's going on right now with the upcoming New Line file Snakes On A Plane. People have been discussing this movie for a year and have discuss certain aspects of the film so fervently, the movie's producers went back and re-shot segments of the film to better align with the thoughts and suggestions people had been voicing about the film. Movie studios used to sue people for posting certain content about a movie prior to its release. Now, recognizing eraly buzz can be leveraged, studios are listening, joining the conversation, letting people inside the production process and providing all kinds of clips and information about their films.

In another example which we covered a while ago, Jeff Jarvis had a horrific experience buying a Dell computer. He publicly shared his experiences on his blog about how Dell customer service had treated him horribly. It bubbled up to mainstream media and top management finally, albeit a bit late, ackowledged they had problems and addressed the problem.

To any company that thinks it can shove a negative issue under the table with a stern press release, your days are over. You're done. If you don't admit you have problems and face them head on, you will be eaten alive and skinned until you are dead. Listen up. Join the conversation. Know that people will create mash-ups of your brand. Be happy they're doing it and leave the lawyers out of the equation.