In the case of Snooki, a brand sending competitors’ merchandise to her in an effort to associate her with those brands is innocuous enough.  However, how far does this go?  What happens when Snooki goes from being a luxury “Poser” to an actual “X-fluent” – who can afford the brands she previously coveted?  Luxury brands would be wise to tread carefully on this subject, or risk backlash much like the racially tinged battle between Cristal and mega rapper/trend setter Jay-Z.

How do luxury brands, who pride themselves on exclusivity and refined culture, separate themselves from the luxury “posers” who gravitate towards their designer products because of the aspirational lifestyle that they represent?  This problem has been amplified of late in the luxury goods space thanks to the omnipresence of social media, particularity via Twitter and Facebook.  The open nature of the social web presents a problem to luxury brands, to whom brand image and perception are tantamount to their success.

Instead of the idea of entering the social landscape instilling fear among luxury brand managers, they should embrace this unique opportunity.

Luxury brands will never be able to stop “posers” from identifying with their brand.  In fact these consumers are already on social networks flaunting their love of a the luxury brand and creating conversation and rich media about it regardless of the brand’s presence on social media platforms. Maintaining an “official” social presence, with a targeted content and engagement strategy geared toward reinforcing the brand’s identity, allows a luxury brand to guide the conversation.  Instead of the consumers forming their own opinions without interaction from the brand, the luxury brand can create an authoritative, educational, engaging voice that enhances rather than cheapens the brand, thus countering any potential “Snooki effect”.

(Burberry’s Art of The Trench microsite is a wonderful example of this strategy.  Burberry capitalized on the trend of their consumers’ love of their iconic trench coats as well as the social media trend to post photos wearing designer goods and fashion as a means of self-expression.  The result is a sleek and interactive site that reflects the brand’s message in a young and fresh way, reflecting the changing landscape of how both “X-fluent” and aspirational consumers connect with a brand.)

At least that’s the question that keeps coming up in conversations with my current / future / probable clients as we look at how to integrate Social Media Marketing into their strategy for 2010. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, it’s no longer an uphill convincing battle of us trying to say to clients YES YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST DO SOCIAL MEDIA AND HERE ARE 1,052 REASONS WHY… now the conversation is more WE KNOW WE NEED TO DO IT SO HELP US FIGURE OUT WHAT WE SHOULD DO?

Lately most of those conversations can’t seem to exist without the mention of the one, the only TWITTER.

The Social Media Marketing landscape is a lot like the world of sports. It has some mainstay platforms (like franchise teams -  the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves = Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr) and then it has it’s emerging greats – powerful players who people believe could become a franchise all on their own (like Jordan + Chicago, LeBron + Cleveland, Bonds + San Fran,… well you get the idea). The emerging greats – like players – can come onto the scene from nowhere and stick around.

Sticking around is what separates them from the majorly buzzed about but often prematurely hyped players – who come into the game and can leave it just as quickly – whether they leave it injured due to technology issues, an acquisition, a lack of providing that niche/unique experience that keeps them around or they simply get beat by a better competitor and bow out.

2009 is Twitter’s year. In 2008 many tech pundits questioned whether Twitter would stick. The most common statement about Twitter seemed to be “I just don’t get it.”

But this is a new year. It’s like Twitter has been drafted out of high school straight into the pros.

Entering into the Twitter game isn’t, however, a right of passage, as some might leave you to believe. Although Twitter is becoming as common a search tool as Yahoo, it still doesn’t necessarily mean that your brand HAS to have an account on Twitter. It’s a platform just like any other – and decision to engage has to be strategic and tie to your business objectives. Just like a team wouldn’t draft a really great point guard if they really are in desperate need of a center forward, Twitter might not be an absolute for your brand.

Without further ado (har har, I couldn’t resist! I’m cheesy!) a few things to consider when trying to answer the epic question “To tweet or not to tweet?” (if you’re asking it as a brand, not as a person…unless your person is your brand, of course…)

As a brand there are a variety of ways you can interact with your existing and potential consumers, or your target or aspirational audiences (or all of the above). It isn’t as simple as a micro statement. Like anything else – the tone, the audience, and the approach can vary based on how the deployment of Twitter would impact your business objectives.

A few common ways brands use Twitter (effectively) are as follows:

• To engage in conversation. At it’s core Twitter allows you to develop, facilitate and engage in B to C and C to B and three way conversations – with those who are talking about you, to you or about /within a marketplace segment you’d like to dominate (or you do dominate).
• To answer customer service questions. Are you in an industry plagued with power outages? Are you like Sprint PCS with your customer dissatisfaction chronicled across the web? Twitter is a great place to begin to answer or facilitate the answering of key consumer questions.
• To provide crisis communication and curb rumors. Celebs are doing the best job of this currently – but brands can as well! Don’t let the blogosphere or some stodgy press release that goes out to the AP tell your story.  Talk to your friends, tell them the truth in a simple, short statement that links to further details. They’ll spread it for you quickly, guaranteed.
• To share new product information and get feedback. Add a new item to your menu? Ask people to check it out and share their micro reviews.  Have something you want to seed? Give it away to some influential tweeters. Don’t let joe schmo rogue blogger from Detroit show the first images of your new concept car, break them on Twitter yourself in an ownable way. Give your consumers a backstage pass to the shaping and molding of your brand.
• To drive traffic to another online destination. Check the web analytics of any brand site who deploys social media marketing. I guarantee Twitter and Facebook rank in the top 5 traffic drivers if they are deploying good strategy within either.
• To host giveaways and other consumer promotions. Invite Tweeters to come to a live tasting of your product. Do a giveaway to your followers. Ask people to retweet a statement in order to win XYZ. Note: there is a fine line in executing this well and with good intention/strategy. I’d suggest not deploying this unless you are sure you’re doing it in a genuine way.
• To tell a story about a brand, experience or persona. This is really the reason to being. What/who/how/why is the voice of your brand? This is the essence of who you are. It blows my mind when people leave this voice to interns. This is your story on the front lines…directly playing with the key players who will BUY your product, make sure you are 100% confident in the storyteller.
• To develop your brand identity. See bullet above.
• To establish relationships by facilitating simple brand interactions. This probably should have been at the top of the list. 9 times out of 10, Twitter makes the most sense when brands really can benefit from relationship marketing with the right audience.  Before brands used to have to go through a third party to make that happen. Those days are gone resulting in an exciting (and often scary for the old school set) new set of opportunities.

The scope and possibility here is way too expansive to be encompassed in this single post.

The point is that although in most cases we would likely determine that drafting Twitter as a new member of your marketing team mix is the right thing to do – it isn’t as simple as signing up for the account, slapping on a background image and tweeting.

There are lots of other players on the field, so if you want to really play, you better step onto it with your A game.

Note on image: The top tweet is one of my favorites, from the man… Mr. A-Z himself twittering about his experience with Surfrider Foundation at a Barefoot Wine sponsored event. Barefoot is one of the brands I have the extreme pleasure of working with on Social Media Marketing.

1. Category – Best Viral Promotion, Games & Gaming Category (Silver W3): Ubisoft’s ‘1191AD: Brotherhood of Assassins’ Campaign for Assassin’s Creed
2. Category – Best Site, Social Networking Category (Silver W3): Hey! Nielsen for The Nielsen Company
3. Category – Best Site, Branding Category (Silver W3): Hey! Nielsen for the Nielsen Company
   
4. Category – Best Site, Entertainment Category (Silver W3): Hey! Nielsen for the Nielsen Company
   

The 2008 W3 Awards received over 3,000 entries from around the globe this year, we’re honored to be on their list of excellent work.