Social Media Marketing - Who is getting it right?

As creators of apps and widgets in the social marketing space, we are keenly aware that social networks shift the paradigm of web marketing. In prior years, the goal was to drive traffic to sites and improve user interaction on web-sites. With the advent of Social Media networks, it is critically important that the users co-create the message and distribute it virally. So we have moved from a Human-to-Computer (H2C) mind-set to true peer-to-peer (P2P) or in this case member-to-member distribution.
Jeremiah Owyang was recently asked about this shift and which companies have been most successful in recognizing and leveraging social media. His top honors go to BMW 1 series. I was very pleased to see that our Facebook application, iGo iWrite meet Jeremiah's criteria:
- Provide a framework for self expression (iGo iWrite is an application that allows users to write about their travel stories)
- Communication with their social peers (writers share their stories with their friends and invite them to rate articles)
Companies that fear negative feedback loose out on a critical opportunity to check the pulse of their brand. You can't manipulate the message anymore, but you can have meaningful dialog with your most important allies - your customers.
You can catch to the whole interview here -