Five years ago, the winners in marketing were the brands that had substantial budgets, creative agencies and the ability to buy millions of impressions.  Then they would track those impressions to results and rebuild their marketing plan for the next year based on which impressions produced the best results.  How many times did we hear the words, “If we only had a bigger budget we could…?”

Enter YouTube and Julia Nunes.  Julia plays the ukulele and covers songs by famous bands.  She writes some herself.  I found Julia on YouTube a few months ago and became an instant fan.

Someone along the line sent me a link to her “Build me up Buttercup” cover.  I watched.  I was the 848,312 viewer of Build me up Buttercup on the ukulele.  I went to the next cover.  500,000 views.  The next cover 750,000views.  Now for the crescendo.  Her original song “Into the Sunshine” had 1,710,934 views.  Amazing.

Here is a cute college aged girl, with a good bit of talent, gaining a national following, creating her own brand with absolutely no monitary investment.  She was not measuring success on impressions… which can be nothing more than driving by a billboard…her success came in the form of creating fans and engaging an audience.  And she did it from her dorm room.

I can imagine the look on one of my clients’ faces if I walked in and said.  Client, we’re going to get this young girl who can sing a little, teach her how to play the ukulele and sing about your brand.  Then we’re going to put her on YouTube and watch the views roll in and up.  Trust me on this.

Julia may have had big plans for her videos, but I’ll bet she did them for the fun of doing them.  And that’s what makes them so endearing and entertaining.

The point of Julia’s success is that if you’re going to try to build your fan base on YouTube or any other social network, it has to be fun for your viewer and you should have fun with it too.  If not, you’re just buying impressions.

At ZLRIGNITION we’re big into audience research.  We think that if you put your customer first in communications, your communications will be more effective.  And we don’t think it’s a numbers game.  Knowing that 64  percent of the audience bank where they bank because of convenience doesn’t exactly lead to more dynamic or creative communications for the bank.  Afterall, you can’t move the building to be more convenient.

Conversations lead to more dynamic insights that lead to more creative and effective communications.  That’s why we think social network sites have a great future in customer research.  Imagine a community of customers discussing your advertising, product or company.  How much could you learn from that?  Then imagine that you can communicate with them personally for more insight.  How much could you learn from that?

The best thing about research using social networks is that it can be ongoing and inexpensive.  You can test ideas.  Test creative.  Or just seek understanding.

There are some dangers though.  The biggest of which may be the insincere, but vocal, participant with an agenda.  You can weed them out and control them in a focus group, but they are difficult to control in a social network setting.  If they are articulate enough, they can skew your result.

If you’ve grown weary of this recession, join the club.  Here’s a suggestion.  Take advantage of it.

There are deals to be had, and market shares to be won.  All it takes is a little courage and a vision.  Here are five ways you can take advantage of this economy:

1.  Expand–there are plenty of good people on the streets who are tired of their livelihood being dependent on the whim of the economy and somebody else.  You can find partnerships to expand your distribution, open new locations and sell to new markets.  And you can do it for a fraction of what it would have cost you a year ago.

2. Negotiate–If you’ve got a budget left, now’s the time to put your agency to work negotiating better deals with the media.  Don’t be afraid to walk away from your favorite station and you can multiply your share of voice.

3.  Zag–Now’s your opportunity to be different.  Avoid sameness.  Do creative that’s loud in the market place.  Make your little bit of money work like a lot of money.

4.  Shake new trees–If the trees you’ve been shaking don’t seem to bear any fruit, shake new ones.  Think about new markets, new prospects, smaller prospects, bigger prospects.

5.  Increase your marketing budget—What?????? In this economy????  Are you nuts????? If you could, wouldn’t it be a great idea.  So if it’s a great idea, why not do it?