Isn't the social media a cool way to advertise? It's almost too good to believe!

Marketers say it's the wave of the future--but not so fast.

If you manage a business enterprise, nothing sounds so promising as the ability to get free "advertising" in the form of word-of-mouth [WOM] that's gone viral--all to the benefit of your commercial offering.  How does it get better than that?  The promotion job gets done ideally fast, free, and from the most influential source possible to glean new buyers--indeed, from other ordinary people!  

And, if you happen to be a consumer of goods and services, how nifty is it to get the "low-down" on what's for sale?  When you get information from other people, it means that you're not getting doctored information, information from potentially shifty marketing professionals--no, you just know you're getting the straight story, right?  How could it be any other way?

You're about to see social marketing in action, right here.  Right now!

Well, in the spirit of celebrating the beauties of "social marketing" I thought I'd share some really interesting news that's gone viral about Boeing's new, forthcoming passenger jet, the 797 Jumbo Jetliner.  I got this sent to me from a friend who's "in the know"--and who knows a lot of other people who are as well.  Here's what I received--and immediately found fascinating...

 

Here's the message that accompanied the photos he sent:  "Look at this new aircraft...Boeing is preparing a 1000 passenger jet that could reshape the air travel industry for the next 100 years. The radical Blended Wing design has been developed by Boeing in cooperation with the NASALangleyResearchCenter.

The mammoth plane will have a wing span of 265 feet compared to the 747's 211 feet, and is designed to fit within the newly created terminals used for the 555 seat Airbus A380, which is 262 feet wide.

The new 797 is in direct response to the Airbus A380 which has racked up 159 orders, but has not yet flown any passengers. Boeing decide to kill its 747X stretched super jumbo in 2003 after little interest was shown by airline companies, but has continued to develop the ultimate Airbus crusher 797 for years at its Phantom Works research facility in Long Beach, Calif.

The Airbus A380 has been in the works since 1999 and has accumulated $13 billion in development costs, which gives Boeing a huge advantage now that Airbus has committed to the older style tubular aircraft for decades to come.

There are several big advantages to the blended wing design, the most important being the lift to drag ratio which is expected to increase by an amazing 50%, with overall weight reduced by 25%, making it an estimated 33% more efficient than the A380, and making Airbus's $13 billion dollar investment look pretty shaky."

Isn't Boeing a great company to do this?  I can hardly wait to fly!  

This looks and sounds like a pretty cool device, right?  You know what the only problem is with all of this?  If you said "It isn't true"--you'd be exactly right.  

Yep, it seemed all so compelling--and attractive--but there was a part of me that also found this a little challenging to believe.  So I checked with a friend of mine, Dan Webb, a recognized aviation expert, who in turn pointed me to snopes.com.  Both said that the story was largely a fabrication.  

Now, I'm not worried that very many consumers out there are going to be highly disappointed when they put on their shopping list--"Stop at the story and pick some milk and a fixed-wing Boeing 797 Jumbo-Jetliner" or "Book my next trip to LAX on Boeing's new plane," but this goes to show that much of what's sent around the internet--or posted on sites, or tweeted, or eMailed is highly dubious, if not down-right misleading!  

Social marketing is cool--and it isn't...all at the same time!  

If you remember, I wrote about exactly this thing happening [see Manage in the service sector?  Then you might have felt the earthquake last week, February 23, 2010] when a disgruntled customer--likely so for less than objective, and perhaps for very self-serving reasons--tweeted and then blogged to a million and a half other people to tell them that Southwest Airlines had acted less than professionally.  The individual's story later became largely discredited by others, but the free, viral word of mouth--what is euphemistically called "social marketing"--had in this case already done its dirty deed.  

The point of the story is that social marketing isn't so much of a new "strategy" a company can simply use if they wish for differential advantage; rather, it is something that can't likely be avoided.  But never forget that from a commercial point of view, it's a two-edged sword.  From a consumer's perspective, it's also good to keep in mind that what you hear from others--simply may not be true...as intriguing as it might, at first, seem!
_______________________________________________________________

To make sure you get a "tweet" with every new blog, follow "keithmurrayblog" on Twitter!  Think others might like to read this?  Re-TWEET it to your followers with the SHARE ARTICLE tab below!

Comments

[Kathy]

I also heard that Snopes can't always be trusted to do their homework.