Despite having withdrawn from Second Life, Ganschow argued that brands need to plan that any social media presence is long term, rather than just for the duration of a campaign. Last year also saw Telstra close its Now We Are Talking blog at short notice. However, Ganschow said that Telstra will now stick with any social media iniattives it launches.
She said: “It’s a courtship, not a speed date. It’s like having a great party and inviting your friends and come midnight kicking them out.
“Having learned what we now know, we will keep every new launch live and active.
“We get bored long before our customers have even woken up and worked out what our message is.”
Meanwhile Nielsen’s director of analytics Mark Higginson warned agencies against raising client expectations about what social media can deliver. He said: “If you set up the expectation that buzz will equate to sales, clients will go away inappropriately optimistic. We need to keep the lid on over inflation of hype. Otherwise we’ll be in the same space we were where everyone wanted a viral video.”
And, Nick Love, executive director of business development at Fox Interactive Media conceded that the company’s MySpace had lost its way. He said: “In the bad old days of MySpace, we grew into silos and failed to innovate and as a result we are where we are today.”
He predicted: “In two years time we will be talking about how MySpace has become an integral part of the entertainment space.”
read more via Telstra: We pulled out of Second Life to follow our customers – mUmBRELLA.
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