New car ads sites popping up all around us.  Not only has Craigslist changed the world order, Google base contains the largest database anywhere – and both web designers & consumers are taking notice.  “Car Ads for Me”, www.CarAds.me is one such site.

It’s a trend worth watching – and certainly a threat to the old guard.

I’m not a web designer (don’t have the technical skills; my background is in branding and general digital marketing) but am really interested in web design, not just for web-design sake, but, also, because of the way web design fits in with related disciplines i.e social media, branding, SEO / SEM, and more.

How important now is it for web designers to have complimentary skills? What do you think are the most important complimentary skills that web designers should be learning (whether students or professionals on the job). Similar to last question: what complimentary skills should clients look for when choosing a web designer, and so on?

Feedback welcome (thanks). 

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What is Consumer Generated Media?

The term ‘consumer generated media’ was coined to describe the general activity on the web where consumers contribute their own content. This content could be, for example, conversation on forums and social network sites in general, posts and comments on blogs, product reviews on product review sites, videos on video sites and general online interactive sites. And more.
How does Consumer Generated Media Affect People in Marketing in General?
Some areas of the internet that host consumer generated media activity make money from consumer content via advertising (for example, with cost-per-click ads and affiliated banner ads on blogs, social network sites, and more). Businesses, however, also use general consumer-generated-media activity within the discipline of social media marketing to listen to audiences (and so find out what audiences want), of finding new customers, building up customer loyalty, and so on – part-and-parcel of social media marketing in general.

Advantages of Consumer Generated Media

• You get the views (what people think of brands, for example) from lots of people. Leading to improvements in products, services, and brands in general. 
• Often the contributions of lots of people can help fill in the gaps about a particular subject quicker than if a much smaller group of people were working on the subject (i.e Wikipedia). 
• Lots of people can contribute lots of content. This is good for building up traffic (and, possibly, advertising revenue).
• Can save money because you don’t have to hire an expert.

Disadvantages

• Consumers can say negative things about your product. 
• Consumers aren’t necessarily experts in a particular field. How much of their content is going to be re-hashed from other content on the web, ill-thought out, and so on, compared to the contribution of an expert? This could have a negative impact on how audiences perceive the brand. Also, consumer content might attract more traffic to your blog but it may well affect the quality of traffic.

Related to consumer generated media, is consumer generated marketing: here.

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What is Consumer Generated Marketing?

Consumer generated marketing describes the directly-involved participation of an audience in the marketing activities of a business (/ brand), where participation is usually encouraged and directed by the business (/brand). Consumers might participate, for example by coming up with ideas for a new product (for example – Dell), by coming up with ideas for an advertising campaign (for example, 1 – iPod, 2- McDonalds, and 3 – Dell), by making suggestions about where the brand should be heading (for example – Starbucks) and more.
(What is consumer generated media? Here)

Advantages of Consumer Generated Marketing

• Consumers know what they like. Lots of consumers can decide what sort of ice-cream, for example, they like. The more feedback, the better the chance of developing a popular product. 
• The more ideas (from more contributors) for an advertising campaign, the greater the chance that the advertising campaign will be a success. 
• Although audiences like advertising (and entertainment) that is well executed and clever, often they like advertising (and entertainment) that isn’t (i.e they often prefer, as a change, content that appears more ad lib than manufactured). 
• Consumers can have important role in development of marketing strategy in general. 

Disadvantages

• Brands should offer something beyond customers’ expectations. Shouldn’t brands try and come up with products and services that are original and different, and beyond customers’ expectations i.e. egg-and-bacon ice-cream for ice-cream (sounds crazy but egg-and-bacon ice-cream is a popular choice in The Fat Duck, one of the UK’s leading restaurants ).
• Ideas for adverts should be handled by experts. People in advertising will ensure that the advert is relevant (from a marketing perspective) to audiences in general. Not just this, but that the advert is different and stands out from the crowd, creatively. 
• Marketing Strategies can be complicated. A consumer might come up with a good marketing idea for a brand, but how does this idea fit in with other marketing ideas, as well as the long and short-term business goals of the company, and so on?

Do you have any favourite examples of user generated marketing?
Do you think that consumer generated marketing can work as well for small businesses as for large businesses?

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