social media explorer

David Finch

With the current economic crisis, it’s becoming very common to hear of large corporations who can no longer generate revenue to meet payroll and pay their vendors. Corporations that have generated billions of dollars as well as held large market shares are now fighting to stay alive. The question that dominates many conversations is, “who’s next?”

This afternoon while commuting home from the office, I was listening to my local public radio station. The show’s host was engaged in a conversation concerning the future of General Motors: its need for more government funding and the possibilities of what would happen if GM had to file for bankruptcy.

Fast forward to a few hours later and I’m sitting down for a meal at a local restaurant with my family and I have a flashback of dining out with my parents as a young boy. I remember sitting at our local Burger Chef engrossed in latest the promotional item from the chain mascots, Burger Chef and Jeff.

While daydreaming about my childhood, I had this question, what if Burger Chef was still around? How would they engage in social media?

Burger Chef in its prime was second only to McDonalds. They were innovators in the fast-food arena. They were the first to incorporate kids meals called “Fun Meals.” They also introduced the condiment station as well as the electric bun toaster. They were extremely creative in their promotional campaigns, but due to financial difficulties the chain was sold to Hardees.

Out of my mental adventure came this question, “How Could Social Media Save Your Favorite Brand?

Recently, Jake Hird, of Econsultancy wrote a post titled, “Consumers control social media, and brands need to wise up.” Jake writes in response to a Netpop Research,

“With the uptake of the likes of Digg, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc (all covered in the study), users are increasingly communicating about brand experiences, products and services, both positively and negatively. Brands need to figure out how best to participate in such an environment.

The growth and power of social media means that brands are becoming more heavily reliant upon consumers for survival, increasingly so in the current economic climate, therefore reaching out to brand evangelists cannot be underestimated. With the massive uptake of social media amongst consumers being used for communication, the weaker brands that fail to recognise, adapt and engage with this behavioural shift are likely to suffer.”

Is your favorite brand suffering to survive? What do you wish they knew?

Let’s try an experiment. In the comment section, name your favorite brand and how you wish they were engaging you as consumer via social media. You never know… They could be listening.

Can’t wait to hear your responses.

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