Towards a third space: Seeking to move beyond social media, are integrated marketeers villains or superheroes?

First with MySpace then later with Facebook and the social media storm that followed, I was drawn to this new place, a cross section of synchronous and asynchronous communication. A unique place for social, cultural, and digital interactions that merged family, friends, and interests into one package. These sites filled an online gap for social interaction, a third space away from email and websites where individuals like me could interact freely. A digital escape from marketing communication that allowed for authentic brand community building free from the perception of corporate eyes following our every move. But to our dismay, this website on a hill no longer exists.

Do we need a new third space? As social media becomes common place for marketing communication and consumers are inundated with ads based on their big data profiles, are we in need of a new place where we can build true community free of the noise of integrated marketing? To those of you who will say, “but this is an integrated marketing communication blog,” I might sound like an IMC villain, the Joker of Integrated Marketing, seeking to vanquish integrated marketing from the hollows of an online Gotham. But I disagree.

For, it is within these authentic brand communities that consumers share mutual product experiences, exchange tips to overcome product related obstacles, and learn about less obvious product features. It is also where product designers seek information about shortcomings firsthand. Think back to Apple’s early days when users shared hardware and software tips and became true Apple enthusiasts in secretive online chat rooms, messaging boards and through rudimentary email. Or when early PS1 users shared in chat rooms that in order to run pirated games you had to turn your console upside down? I long for a place where these conversations can thrive once again. A social interaction zone where ordinary consumers become brand enthusiasts.

As marketeers it is our duty to foster brand communities that are free from the confines of traditional media and aim to bring together consumers in honest, open exchanges. It is in these places that we can move from marketing villains to marketing superheroes, move from spies of big data toward marketing superheroes that facilitate brand building and forge product innovation.

Do such places exist online? What can we do to facilitate authentic chatter in our oppressive world of big data?