Social media in marketing…is the hype over yet?

by Donovan Creative in SOCIAL MEDIA, STRATEGY

23

Jun
2010

FILED UNDER

This isn’t a post on social media strategy, what is/isn’t social media, or a how-to on Twitter. I’m not going to duplicate what the experts I follow have already said. I have a reading list for that. I think it’s more of a rant. It’s also my first blog post, so I’m just going to express myself and see where it goes. I’m a techie first and I’m sure I’ll be filling up this space in the months to come with my inner dork.

Even within my industry, I’m frustrated with the phrase social media being tossed around as if it was a bright shiny object and getting tacked on to every conversation. It’s marketing—let’s move on.

Of course I’m biased, as it’s something I’m involved with every day. I take for granted that not everyone is on the same page—yet. I predict that in the next two years all the buzz will settle down and people will realize that social media is nothing more than an extension and evolution of communication.

The hype around social media is no different than the hype around TV in the 50’s. Advertisers and companies scrambled to understand and utilize the uncharted waters of television. Social media hype today is no different.

Social media isn’t new. Digital social media/mediums have been around since before the World Wide Web in the form of news groups, bulletin boards and e-mail. People are social by nature and want to connect. The difference between pre-www mediums and what we have today is that the technology is accessible to an exponentially larger audience.

Every brand, company and organization needs a platform to grow their audience and tell their story. Their strategy to accomplish this might involve radio, TV, print, digital and more. Social media is a piece of it that needs to be included as part of the overall communications strategy from the beginning, not as an afterthought.

It’s not a checklist of platforms (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) that companies need to “be on” either. They should be where it makes sense for who they are and what they have to share. It’s just like any other medium. If you don’t need to be on the radio, don’t buy radio. Same goes for social media.

So what do you need to do?

1. Educate yourself and your organization on what social media is and how you can use it.
2. Develop a social media policy and strategy.
3. Find and follow the real experts. You’ll find that much of the information and strategy is repeated, yet the conversation is always changing.

Here are a few of the blogs I read:

Chris Brogan
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/

Copy Blogger
http://www.copyblogger.com/

Global Neighbourhoods
http://globalneighbourhoods.net/

Logic + Emotion
http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/

Mack Collier
http://mackcollier.com/

Mashable
http://mashable.com/

Occam’s Razor
http://kaushik.net/avinash/

Seth’s Blog
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/

Six Pixels of Separation
http://www.twistimage.com/blog/