The development of social media has changed marketers’ behaviours significantly. Before the popularization of the Internet, a lot of marketers were able to take advantage of social media to control potential consumers’ views about their products. However, with the development of social media, especially the Internet,consumers are no longer receiving information passively from marketers. Instead, they start to share their opinions towards different products by commenting on various brand’s official website, blogging, etc.

The conversation for marketers turned from the one-way nature of traditional media to a two-way dialogue that could not be ignored. Social media has shifted the conversation so forcefully that consumers have an unprecedented level of control over brands, rapidly turning themselves into a brand’s best advertisers.

From my perspective, “consumer-advertisers”  are way more powerful than the real advertisers. The first reason is that “Consumer-advertisers” are more objective towards the products that they have used. There is hardly any mutual benefits between them and the producers. The second reason is that”Consumer-advertisers” are consumers who have used the products themselves. Therefore, they tend to be more convincing and are regarded as more trust-worthy.

Since what consumers think really matters, I think that the new marketing trend should be focusing more on the searching engine optimization (since most consumers usually just read the first web page), instead of just paying attention to better TV advertisements.