When direct mail was hot, marketing people who knew how to craft strategies, design campaigns and track ROI were heroes. They were the gurus who wrote books, taught seminars and led corporations into this wonderful new venture of tapping into captive audiences where they live/work/play through targeted direct mail marketing!
Today, similar attention and excitement surrounds social media. Companies across the globe are quickly setting up webpages, LinkedIn groups, Facebook Fan Pages, micro-sites, Twitter accounts, etc. The frenzy is certainly here! As companies excitedly see a new social media tool come online, they’re asking What is it? Who’s already there? How do we get on board? (And how do we still keep our employees focused on work, not Facebook?)
The better question to ask is: Why? Branding and marketing strategies begin with many benchmarks and metrics. One of the most important ones to address is Why do we want to do this? Why will our target audience care? Why will they find us here? Why are we relevant and compelling?
Social media, social networking and the entire online space offers tremendous power, potential and reach. The long tail of the web goes farther than any postman-carried letter could hope. With all of this wonderful potential also comes risk — if the Why questions aren’t addressed, if audiences are not adequately targeted, and if metrics for success are missing, social media marketing can also become a deep black marketing hole.
Great post, Lida. I like your view of comparison on how the marketers of yesterday are the social media gurus of today. It certainly adds an interesting dynamic to today’s networking amongst industries. Although I’ve had great success with direct mail in the past, the playing field in which social media offers is quite extraordinary. It adds a dynamic in which one cannot throw a metric on, as well as realized until it’s implemented. – Geoff