I’ve been thinking a lot lately about traditional marketing principles and how they fit in with social media. Do they still hold true? Have they changed slightly? Do we need to add something to them? I’ll probably dabble in some of these questions in the next few weeks on here, starting with this…
TRADITIONAL MARKETING
The way I see it, there are two very important steps in marketing. The first is letting people know who you are, what you’re doing, and getting them to the front door. It may just be me, but this seems to be where most of the focus is in traditional marketing. That’s why we spend money on commercials and advertisements–to get people to our door step.
The second step would be convincing the consumer to buy your product and then return as a customer. Personally, I think this part sort of gets left out of the equation a lot of times. This involves ensuring you have a killer product, a great experience for your customer, and then maybe doing a little follow-up with them saying “Hey, you mean a lot to us, I’d love to have you come visit again.” People just expect to be able to sell and sell and sell when their product stinks, the buying experience is horrendous, and they do nothing to show the customer how valued they are.
SOCIAL MEDIA
For some reason, it seems to me like these two steps are reversed for most people in social media. Many people think “content is king.” As long as you’re putting out interesting content that is fostering interaction with and among your customers, you’re in like flint. If you build it, they will come. Right?
No no no! No, you can’t have sucky content and no you can’t just expect your engagement meter to fill up. But so many “conservative” companies are wondering why they’re not getting the numbers coming to their landing page that they want, when they really aren’t doing anything to promote it. VERY few people are going to hop on Facebook and think “Gee, I sure do love Southwest. In fact, I love ‘em so much I want to see if they have a Fan Page.” If you’re counting on that, then good luck to ya.
A big part of why social media hasn’t been integrated into each of these existing channels is because social media is put away in a silo all by itself, expected to grow on its own, and this just won’t do. In my eyes, if you want to fully embrace social media, then why would you not want to fully integrate it with all of your existing marketing and communications platforms?
You already have newsletters that go out to interested customers, so why not just include a link to your Twitter profile? Heck, why not send out one newsletter just asking people to follow your new Twitter account?
You’re spending millions of dollars on commercials and print advertising, so why not just put your Twitter handle on it? It’s not like it’s going to take up a lot of space. I didn’t look, but I don’t recall seeing one company include their social presence in their Super Bowl ad. Are you kidding me?
If you have multiple accounts, please link them to each other.
If you have a Facebook Page, use some targeted ads to try to reach the exact customers you’re looking for.
At the VERY least, you can at least put links to your social pages on the home page of your website.
SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
How can you claim to be fully embracing social media if you’re not even using your full arsenal to make sure people know about it? One “viral” campaign (notice the “quotes”) or one Twitter contest isn’t going to cut it. Sure, these can be cool and are a great reward for your followers, but nobody built an empire based on a single marketing stunt.
Don’t get me wrong, the content needs to be there or visitors will arrive at your front door and scurry away very quickly. Content is ultimately what will win them over. But you can’t win over people who don’t know about you.
Is this just a big figment of my imagination? Are companies doing a better job than I realize at letting people know about their social profiles? What are some ways that social media can be integrated with existing marketing platforms?
Image by SlipStreamJC
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J to the Money -
1.) Your new design is still sick nasty. That's a good thing.
2.) It's something so obvious, yet something that we have to keep repeating because people don't seem to “get it” yet. How many of those SuperBowl ads could've driven traffic to a Fan Page or a Twitter account where they could've engaged all the people that watched their ads?
R Weezy –
1.) Thanks for the props. Much love.
2.) I was really expecting to see at least a handful of companies plug their social sites during the Super Bowl. Some would've been better just putting their Twitter URL on screen for 30 seconds instead of the embarrassing ads they went with.
All this silo talk (not just your reference, Jackie…it's popping up everywhere) seems silly to me. If I'm going to “silo” anything it's going to be by purpose – one silo for branding, one silo for events & promotions, one for call to action offers, etc. SMM is just one of the vehicles we use to communicate any of these purposes; as are print, radio and other mediums. You are right – you should “fully integrate it with all of your existing marketing and communications platforms.” Why wouldn't you? There are dashboards for simultaneous updates and the petrol for the SMM vehicles is just time – not money.
“Why wouldn't you?” is a good question, but for some reason, some still don't get it! And even in your examples, the branding people should still be in close communication with events/promotions and each other marketing department, as each of their efforts are largely dependent on each others'. Silos, like bureaucracy, is meant to help gain more efficiency, but, unfortunately we lose some quality when this happens.
Hey Jackie, just read this post and it made me think of yours…http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/02/no-surprise-really—fortune-1.php
Awesome, thanks for passing along! Interesting that Asian Fortune 100 companies prefer blogs because they can “control” the conversation more. Personally, I think you have to be willing to relinquish some control to be successful in social.
Hey Jackie, just read this post and it made me think of yours…http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/02/no-surprise-really—fortune-1.php
Awesome, thanks for passing along! Interesting that Asian Fortune 100 companies prefer blogs because they can “control” the conversation more. Personally, I think you have to be willing to relinquish some control to be successful in social.
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