Interactive Social Media Social Psychology

You have to appreciate how I used the word "social" twice in the title. 

I heard these two stories on NPR ("On The Media") over the weekend, and they so tied psychology and sociology to interactive buzz marketing that I had to share them here.  Give them a listen, before you read on.

Peruse any job board for positions relating to interactive marketing and almost always under the desired education requirement you’ll see computer science, IT, business administration, or the narrower disciplines of marketing and public relations.  It seems the interactive marketing community as a whole has severely underestimated the application of a social science degree to an online marketing career.  My undergraduate degrees are in psychology and sociology, and on more than one occasion I have found myself explaining how my training in the social sciences is applicable to a career in marketing.

To me it’s not a big leap; to others it’s implausible.  When people think about psychology, they picture a comfortable room with two people - one sitting in an arm chair taking notes, and the other laying on his back spilling his guts while paying $200 an hour for the privilege to do so.  I didn’t pick psychology out of the list of majors to become a clinical psychologist like the one in this example.  I could care less about a stranger’s relationship with his or her mother.  I started in the field with the desire to become an experimental psychologist and through empirical hypothesis testing I wanted to explore the mysteries of human behavior and mental processes.  If it helps, picture a guy in a white lab coat holding a clipboard observing people through a two-way mirror. 

Similarly, I find that people are often misinformed about what sociology involves.  They confuse the discipline with social work or social advocacy when in fact sociology is nowhere as benevolent.  Sociology, in brief, is about investigating the behavior of groups and their interrelationship with the individual.  I have even argued that marketing is a hybrid of applied sociology and business administration, given marketing’s high level goal of influence and persuasion.  It’s pretty well accepted that the multibillion dollar a year industry of market research is a type of applied sociology.

You’d be hard pressed to find someone active in online marketing that would dispute the statement that social media is where it’s at.  With big brands flocking to Facebook and MySpace to transform latent customers in to brand advocates, interactive marketing firms are scrambling to adopt in this new environment.  As much in SEO or PPC, if not more so, interactive marketers that practice social media channel development must ask questions like:

1. How do we influence customers to buy our products?
2. How do we influence customers to promote our brand?
3. How do we enter into a new online community and interact with members effectively?
4. How do we leverage these social networks to create buzz?
5. How do we encourage long term retention in our customers
6. What are our customers saying to us?
7. How do we respond?
8. How do we track the reach of our message?

To my ears, at their core, these are social science questions, not computer science questions.  How companies can actually leverage observations from social science research to generate ROI is the business marketing extension of each of the questions listed above.  Unless marketers first try to understand the questions (and answers) above in the light of the specific community they aspire to influence, they will not be successful in their efforts of generating ROI.  Just because a community or culture exists online, doesn’t make it less of a community or culture.  A person trained in psychology and sociology may be as effective in uncovering deep insights about the types of people behind the screen names used on social networking/media websites than a person with a traditional marketing background.  For example, during my undergraduate years, I took classes in community psychology, social psychology, social problems, psychological anthropology, and methodology of social research.  The sum of all these courses was a solid background in how to systematically dissect, investigate, and influence the inner workings of a community. 

Although, I relied on the social media example to make my argument, a social science degree is strongly conducive to success in other areas of online marketing.  In conclusion, folks with psychology and sociology backgrounds have taken courses relating to influence, motivation, perception, group dynamics, cultural studies, demographics, statistical analysis, survey design, consumer psychology, and research - all of which are important in Internet marketing.

Netflix Watch Instantly = Cable Killer?

Rave.  For a certain segment of the in-home entertainment market, myself included, Netflix is reaching cable killer status.  I’ve had a growing dissatisfaction with cable and other such services for some time simply because their offerings do not fit my viewing needs.  In short, I find that cable is plagued by high monthly rates, monopolistic-like market dominance in the form of Comcast (which brings with it a whole other set of gripes), and on-demand programming choices of little interest to me.  Plus, cable is the avenue of the networks, and unless you have an insatiable desire for reality shows, music videos, and Law and Order reruns, then you’re left asking yourself "What about the stuff I want to see?"

My home viewing needs are simple:  1.  I don’t want to pay through the nose to see network programs that don’t appeal to me or the same syndicated TV shows on every channel.  2.  When I’m in the mood for something, I would like to see it.  There really isn’t much more than that to it.

Unlike Comcast, Netflix has caught on to the fact that it really is that simple.  And because Netflix has realized that this basic consumer desire is largely unfulfilled by the giants of the cable industry, they are slowly transitioning from a secondary source of in-home entertainment via their hallmark DVD-by-mail service, to a primary provider of broadband-based on-demand entertainment. 

Last year when I subscribed to Netflix, I thought their 2 DVDs at a time for $13.99 plan was a steal, especially since you can keep the DVDs as long as you want without having to be troubled with late fees and because there were no restrictions on the number of rentals you can have per month.  Some time ago, Netflix launched it’s Watch Instantly service which streams movies direct to a user’s browser WITHOUT INCREASING THE MONTHLY PLAN PRICE.  Now, I’m fairly certain this was done in an attempt to gain market share from other companies in the DVD by mail market, namely Blockbuster Online, and it may not last forever, but the added value of this new service to customers is astronomical.  Watch Instantly is an extremely user-friendly system, with a basic point and click interface that gives folks instant viewing gratification.  With 10,000 Watch Instantly titles to choose from, the customer plays the role of a network programmer with the single goal of pleasing oneself.  Unlike, Comcast On-Demand, Netflix actually has stuff in its inventory that I want to see, including a bunch of hit movies and TV shows from a year ago.  If I wanted to watch Heroes: Season 1 right now all I would have to do is click the "Play" button.  Go ahead, dare me to do it.

At this point you may ask yourself "Suppose I give Comcast the ax what am I giving up by going exclusively with Netflix?  Other than the high monthly rates, not much else.  You’d be able to get network shows (including the local news) from NBC and ABC over-the-air in most markets (dig the rabbit ears out of the closet).  But, you’d miss out on seeing first airings of Flavor of Love 3 episodes.  You’d be able to rent many of the same movies shown on premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime for a fraction of the cost, however the ability to view original shows like Weeds would be delayed at least a year.  But if you’re a sports nut, you may not want to cancel your cable just yet.  What about the viewing experience?  Netflix also has a slick piece of hardware (available for $100) that allows customers to stream Watch Instantly movies direct to a TV set without first passing through a computer.  Lastly, from what I’ve seen the steaming quality of Watch Instantly is pretty damn good.