The One With All The Marketing
I have talked a lot about Web 2.0 technologies in education. While these technologies enhance the way we teach and learn, Web 2.0 technologies, social media in particular, have changed the age of marketing. Traditional marketing, before the internet, consisted of TV commercials, radio ads and billboards posted along the freeways. While those marketing outlets still exist today, the industry has shifted to be more consumer driven and not producer driven. Marketers use the power of the Internet and social media to find out what consumers like and how they view their business and business activities.
Social media gives marketers the access to thousands, possibly millions, of consumers who have opinions on almost everything. The Internet is filled with social networking sites, blogs, and forums with opinionated people who want their voice to be heard. While that may get annoying for some who just like to lurk and gain knowledge from these sites, now have to deal with clutter and pages of posts and comments on one topic, it is a dream for marketers. One simple post can provide a great deal or information for them on how consumers view different things.
This is called crowdsourcing. According to Matthew Charles Wilson, crowdsourcing is the practice of acquiring information or task inputs from a large number of people. From a marketing standpoint, the crowd is the third-party people who are unrelated to the business that is being conducted. Businesses use this method of advertising to gather information about consumers to determine how they can enhance their business. A simple poll, post or even direct messages, can lead a business having large amounts of data they can use to better market to their customers.
While it seems as though this is new way for businesses to create marketing content, promotional strategies and even product development, is it an invasion of privacy? Do you ultimately give up that right of privacy to marketers by just following them on a social media account or liking and commenting on their posts? We have probably all experienced targeted social media ads based on something we viewed on the Internet or liked on another platform. Has the technology and use of crowdsourcing in marketing gone too far as to invade our privacy and use our opinions without consent?
Social media gives marketers the access to thousands, possibly millions, of consumers who have opinions on almost everything. The Internet is filled with social networking sites, blogs, and forums with opinionated people who want their voice to be heard. While that may get annoying for some who just like to lurk and gain knowledge from these sites, now have to deal with clutter and pages of posts and comments on one topic, it is a dream for marketers. One simple post can provide a great deal or information for them on how consumers view different things.
This is called crowdsourcing. According to Matthew Charles Wilson, crowdsourcing is the practice of acquiring information or task inputs from a large number of people. From a marketing standpoint, the crowd is the third-party people who are unrelated to the business that is being conducted. Businesses use this method of advertising to gather information about consumers to determine how they can enhance their business. A simple poll, post or even direct messages, can lead a business having large amounts of data they can use to better market to their customers.
While it seems as though this is new way for businesses to create marketing content, promotional strategies and even product development, is it an invasion of privacy? Do you ultimately give up that right of privacy to marketers by just following them on a social media account or liking and commenting on their posts? We have probably all experienced targeted social media ads based on something we viewed on the Internet or liked on another platform. Has the technology and use of crowdsourcing in marketing gone too far as to invade our privacy and use our opinions without consent?
Your post raises a lot of great questions! If you have not watched "The Creepy Line" (which I believe is on Tubi for free, maybe Amazon Prime) I highly recommend it! I've made comments before like "wow, I was just talking about this and here is an ad for them on sale -- how crazy!" without stopping to think about how that maybe came to target me. I think it is an invasion of privacy, but one that we all accept.
ReplyDeleteI have a Gmail account, which also oversees my Blogger account, my Google Docs, my Youtube, my Google search history, and where I have been via Google Maps. Google knows me better than I know myself and I willingly give them this information.
I think you throw middle men like companies and influencers and then the cycle just continues to spin. You interact with more online because interesting things are thrown at you, Google collects more data which sells it to companies which targets specific influencers that have specific followings to sell their products and we buy it.
I think that companies that buy data and mine their own are within their rights as they are written, but I don't think I agree with the terms and conditions morally.
What are your thoughts?
This reminds me of that episode from Parks and Recreation when "Gryzzl" is data mining. I added a link to an article that kind of outlines it if you are interested.
DeleteThe idea of information being collected on you personally to "encourage" you to buy more is a really scary thing to me. The crazy specific target ads I have on FB, wow! I can tell you I do not need anything they advertise to me, but I really like it all! It takes so much will power to walk away from things that seem so "you." This system really sets people up for financial failure, but is this the companies' problem? Is it actually our "choice" to go online and give them this information? How can most people go through their everyday life without using the internet? School, work, leisure, directions, phone numbers, we use it for everything.
https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/242796/parks-and-rec-data-mining-episode-was-eerily-tru.html
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteCan you think of an example when you crowdsourced something from your own personal network?