Base One blog

March 09 2009 11:10 AM

There’s been a lot of talk about social media recently. It’s certainly a hot topic, but we can’t help thinking that it’s really just a symptom of something bigger. Social media tools - from the ostensibly trivial [Facebook](http://www.facebook.com) and [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com) to the weightier [LinkedIn](http://www.linkedin.com) - are getting all the headlines, but we shouldn’t let this vogue distract us from what is really going on. What is really happening is that we, as marketers, are losing control of how our brands appear on the web.

But it’s not about web technology, it’s about buyer behaviour on the web. The truth is that buyers get more information online from other buyers than they have ever done. OK, this has been enabled by technology, but what we have to deal with is the fact that there is a place out there where marketers are no longer in control. We call it the Buyersphere, and it consists of every point of contact online between the buyer and the brand. Every place where a prospective buyer picks up information about a brand - whether via a formal network like LinkedIn, or a serendipitous search. It is the sum total of millions of buyers collecting and sharing information online. It is the total universe of online content that influences buyer behaviour (it doesn’t just influence brand preference because what buyers read might also inspire them to inspire others and so on in the now-classic viral distribution pattern).

The Buyersphere had to be defined because it is more than influencer marketing, it is more than online reputation management, and it is a mind-shift away from conventional brand management.

As marketers, we have to be aware of it. It’s there, we have to deal with it. And the brands that thrive in the Buyersphere are the ones that recognize how to harness this buyer behaviour. After all, these days we’re not building the brands, they are.