Responsibility and accountability of social media.

With all the insights and research that are at the marketers fingertips as of late, there is another level of responsibility when it comes to marketing campaigns and execution thereof.

With all the marketing tools available, messages are becoming more targeted and are more likely to take effect on the receiver of that message. The challenge, other than getting that message to target group, is the control of the interpretation of that marketing message.

Most competitions lately require that consumers [I guess they should be called participants] submit some sort of media for entry and a community built around that brand and its competition vote for who they feel deserves to win. The concept is great, and as I have been part of this sort of competition before, I can vouch for the results obtained, as well as the public scrutiny that comes with it. One thing I did notice was the length that I, and my fellow contestants, went to, to get votes. Strategies varied from knocking the other contestants to posting very private information in the hope of “winning the crowd” on familiarity. Whichever strategy was employed, I’m sure most were out of their comfort zones but had to push the limits to stay in the running.

People are willing to go to extreme lengths to stay in the running for this sort of thing, they push their personal limits by trying new things, taking their existing skill sets and challenging themselves. Some succeed and some, unfortunately, do not.

NBC Orlando reported earlier this week on a 13 year old that had a friend set him alight while he was wearing a banana suit, which he tried to recreate after seeing it on Youtube. The boys mother is pointing the finger at Youtube and warning parents to take tighter reigns on their children’s browsing habits. Although this wasn’t linked to any marketing campaign, this sort of thing should be taken into consideration when planning CGM based campaigns as no-one wants a PR fiasco when/if people get hurt or do something stupid. Someone is eventually going to be held responsible.