Brandhackers – Buy or Build?

Back in LinkedIn, I asked a question to the “BrandHackers” group:

What do you think the trend for Brand conversations is going to be:

A. Brands will create their own social networking platform
B.  Brands will buy a social networking platform to use

While I only received a handful of comments, I must say that they were good:

Shashank Nigam, a columnist for Interbrand‘s BrandChannel.com and Editor/Blogger at SimpliFlying, said:

“Great question Joseph! I’d add a third option: (C) Brands will use existing social networks. I think it will be a mix of A and C. This will make sure there is enough brand leverage from A, as well as increased adoption and usage through existing social networks like Facebook. In fact, I just wrote an article on how airlines are leveraging social networks. I’d love to hear your comments on it.”

Meanwhile, Nelson Kunkel, CEO of Ingredient, Inc.,  paid compliment to Shashank and remarked:

“Hopefully neither. Truly great brands should be a part of public culture, but not attempt to manufacture cultural experiences. Sustainability is about understanding these new media outlets and how to best take advantage of their organic nature; too many companies falsely believe it’s about recreating them.  Shashank nailed it in his article (above). The best brands will find ways to participate in social networking communities and become an authentic part of social discussion.”

And lastly, Scott Fingerhut, a Senior Director of Marketing at TIBCO Software, enriched the conversation and paid compliment to Nelson:

“Nelson is on target. Aspiring brands (Coke is out there regardless of where they participate) are pliable in that they get into the appropriate conversation wherever that takes place. That means being flexible to changing mediums (is it Facebook, Yahoo, MySpace, LinkedIn, new 1.0, new x.x, etc). And mostly it’s about being relevant, authentic and interesting…”

Gentlemen, thank you for Brand bonding with the Marketing Consigliere!