What’s Social About Google/Viacom Corporate Greed?



2010 March, 19th
Kristen Nicole
Kristen Nicole
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Companies like Google and Viacom are supposed to be the picture of perfection, doing no wrong, leading by example, and always making the responsible decision. But that’s not always the case, is it. Every once in a while, the sordid details of what really goes on behind the corporate doors are aired for all to see. When it comes to web-based businesses, the era of social media marketing could soon come under fire.

USA Today has reported on some of those dirty secrets left behind from the lawsuit Viacom brought against Google a few years back. After YouTube gained in popularity, Viacom was quick to attack the user-generated video site for the pirated content owned by Viacom. You may recall how the Daily Show found itself at the center of the Viacom-YouTube war, with consumers dedicated to viewing free, on-demand content.

The lawsuit was eventually settled, but the accusations that flew between Viacom and YouTube sound like something out of a movie. In the legal documents released by Viacom and Google this week, you can see how the drama played out. Viacom said that YouTube was making money off illegal, pirated content. Google retorted that Viacom was intentionally (albeit secretly) posting its content on YouTube to gain grass roots popularity.

So who’s telling the truth, and does it really matter? Google and Viacom aren’t the only ones that have seemingly taken advantage of the power of social media. Yelp, the local venue review site, is facing a lawsuit of its own. In the suit, Yelp is accused of pressuring businesses to purchase their services in order to deal with the bad reviews people have left on the site. These accusations include claims that Yelp is in fact paying people to write bad reviews, giving the company the fodder it needs to pressure the businesses it approaches.

In light of all these back-handed marketing tactics, the public will begin to question why certain sites are popular and how they got that way. Now that the era of web 2.0 is making way for the next stage of consumer-centric digital services, we’re better able to reflect on the processes used to make social media the massive cultural influence it has become.

How many other user-generated sites have been built on the assumption that the content provided came from the actual users, and not the site’s employees? How effective is social media marketing if it is, in fact, being driven by corporate mechanisms instead of actual user activity?

Even for the new era of social media marketing, we’ve seen some adverse behavior from the corporate higher-ups. Certain gaming applications running on Facebook have been known to use less than stellar marketing techniques to leverage one’s social graph for the purpose of generating revenue. If each generation of social media comes with its own set of dire advertising behavior, where do the users actually fit in?

For starters, I think users will evolve into smarter consumers over time. Social media has stabilized itself to a large extent, and most people partaking in such outlets know what to expect. As social media continues to infiltrate various aspects of our lives, we’ll be able to better see how the corporate side of marketing has its effects on our social media experience. As social media also becomes more welcoming of advertising, we’ll also see a more transparent process of interaction between consumers and brands.

That’s not to say the days of sneaky marketing are over, but at least we’re more aware of what could be going on behind the closed doors of the executive offices. When it comes to social media marketing in particular, brands are well aware that their perception in the virtual sense can be largely controlled. Finding a way to incorporate that into their principles and consumer interaction is where the corporate responsibility lies.

About the Author

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Kristen was the lead writer and Field Editor of Mashable, a popular publication that covers social media and tech. She has contributed to a number of other publications including CenterNetworks, VentureBeat, Bubblicious and The Industry Standard. Her work has been syndicated across a number of main stream media outlets, including Reuters, The New York Times, and NBC. Her latest accomplishment has been co-authoring The Twitter Survival Guide, which you can purchase here. She is also completing her second book, Twitter for Women.

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