Blogs, podcasts, video, online photo albums, social networks, do-it-yourself ad campaigns. Increasingly people are creating more content than “mainstream media” companies. Consumers are creating ads, editing existing ones and proliferating them over YouTube and other sharing services. People are gaining more control over content and even how a company’s brand is perceived. Is this a good thing? Is it a fad? Can is be managed? Should it be managed? Should brands allow consumers to “co-op” their brand? Should everything be a “conversation”? Should we completely say goodbye to traditional, top-down brand management? Are brands jumping on the social/conversational bandwagon because they believe in it, it’s the latest fad or they are just trying to appear cool? There’s a lively forum discussion about this topic in our forum section. Check out the discussion there or give us your thoughts in comments.
