New Rule - Your audience is in control

Meg Ferguson writes on Big Fuel's blog about social networking after attending Philadelphia's AMA conference. I loved the article!

Sometimes you may know things and not consciously realize you know it until someone says it (comedians are good at this, too). When I read what Ms. Ferguson wrote - your audience is in control - I realized a lot of companies know this but haven't put it into practice. In fact, many companies refuse to even acknowledge the presence of some social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to their detriment. It's not what the company thinks the consumer wants, it's what the consumer actually wants! And there is too many outlets to inform the company what their audience wants/needs to let it pass you by.

In conjunction with this, take a look at Griffin Farley's blog from 22squared. This is a great example of actually listening to the consumer. T-Mobile brought normal (i.e., not actors) people together to create an advertisement. Like Faris states on his blog, "The key is to produce something that both pulls people together and gives them something to do...We are social creatures - I'm sure you all agree - but we need reasons to be social."