The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media

Chapter 3. Who Is In Control of the Marketing Message?: (Guess What. It's Not You!)

FROM COMMAND-AND-CONTROL TO OUT OF CONTROL TO COMMUNITY CONTROL

Classic command-and-control marketing and advertising involved creating a message and distributing it through every available channel. You've seen this methodology employed hundreds of times in ads like Ford's "Drive One," or Nike's "Just Do It" campaigns.

If it feels a bit militaristic, that's because command- and-control has its roots in the military. The General barks orders to the Colonel who hands them down to the Major who passes them along to the Captain, then to the Lieutenant and so on down to the lowly Private.

Not unlike that, marketing executives, working in tandem with ad agencies, carefully craft messages that get syndicated through multiple channels until they reach the consumer, who is supposed to be inspired to do just what the ads direct. Simple, really. If one campaign doesn't pan out, another comes along behind it that may. If that one fails, then a new agency is hired to replace the one that faltered, or maybe the CMO herself is the one to get the ax.

New media has disrupted that structure and put the message in the hands of the consumer who remixes it to suit his liking. The brand's message becomes whatever the community dictates, not the brand. In fact, it is no longer the sole property of the brand.

You would think that ...