Social Media and Traditional Advertising Are Similar and Different

Lorraine Ball has an excellent post today talking about consistency in advertising, blogging, and social media.  She talks about the similarities between social media and blogging compared to corporate advertising. She cites Mitch Joel when talking about the best practices in social media.

1. “Repetition, repetition, repetition”.  His point was simple, if we wanted to get noticed, we could not take a one shot approach to our marketing.  Multiple ads, multiple pieces of direct mail would be required to break through the clutter. And the same is true today!  Using blogging and social media as an integral part of your marketing mix.

2. He also makes a great point about creating a consistent online image.  Just as you wouldn’t consider changing your brand color or font every time you print a new brochure, don’t change your identity when you blog.

It made me think about my own paradigm when it comes to push marketing, bomber marketing strategy, and traditional advertising. I have come to despise the constant bombardment of direct mail and email blasts. There is something to be said of a company who can connect with a niche group of people of an emotional level. It is true that repetition and consistency is key in traditional advertising, as well as social media. I wanted to take it a bit further and explain why social media is an upgrade to the traditional advertising platform.

There always needs to be repetition and consistency in social media but not necessarily in terms of “repetition” in the advertising world. In my opinion, repetition in advertising means creating a marketing strategy for a large demographic base and then trying to hit that base as many times as possible with that message (bombing). Social Media has a way (wether you like it or not) to create an extremely niche listener base in your community outlets.

Friendfeed is a great example of this. When you “like” something on Friendfeed you are paired and grouped with people who tended to “like” the same thing. If you are subscribed to a person and he/she likes another post, you will see it in your timeline. This creates a network of niche individuals who share a certain connection in terms of information.

It is hard to pinpoint a specific niche market in your daily social media meanderings because you truthfully have little to no control on how your listerner base in built. That is the difference between social media marketing and traditional advertising.

We choose what we want to read. We choose what we want to see and experience. There has never been such a powerful consumer centric platform in the history!

Yes, you need to be repetitive and consistent in your social media use but if you don’t tack on the content your clientbase wants to read… you might as well be dropping bombs on yourself.

Economic Downturn? Now Is The Time To Innovate!

I recently posted a video on my other blog about the concept of revamping a static site into a website that can be changed and monitored. The economy is sharply declining and the status of small businesses are hanging in the balance because of the lending crunch. Money is hard to come by and it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet payroll without a credit line to back up the lack of cash rolling into a business.

As a business owner you may be asking yourself, “When is the best time to start innovating the way I do business? When is the right time to switch up and try something new?” I am in the same boat as an owner of a social media marketing firm in Indianapolis. As a small business owner of  you can get bogged down with daily routines and projects (external influences) that keep you from focusing (at least a bit) into the internal processes of your company.

When is the time to switch up and think differently? NOW. Matt Rhodes at Freshnetworks recently wrote a post entitled Innovate through a downturn, but make it customer led. He gives a few ideas on how a business owner can innovate and take control of their companies to make it through the downturn.

Some thoughts from Matt:

Make sure you are close to your customers and that they are close to you. It should be your brand they think about when they do want to make a purchase and you should be aware of what they think and how their habits are changing.

Innovate to stay ahead of the game. A crisis is a great time to innovate – you have to think of ways of staying ahead of the competition, of being more efficient or of new products that you can offer. It’s true of war-time, where many of the best innovations (from the pie-chart to nylon) originate; and it’s true of business during challenging economic times.

It was exactly the medicine I needed as a business owner to think a little differently when going about my daily routine.

You cannot be afraid of a declining economy. Fear turns into miscalculation which can morph into a disease that spread throughout your company and ruins productivity.

So how do you become innovative in your thinking and switch up the way you have been doing business? How do you create something that can be a vehicle to drive new business into your company? New business means an increase in cash flow (we hope) which can take your mind off the credit line that is slowly dissapating.

Answer: Crowd Source your current customers. Talk to your current customers and ask if there is anything you can do BETTER for them. Lorraine Ball at Roundpeg wrote a post yesterday about rethinking the way you “surprise and delight” your customers. Guess who can give you ideas on how to surprise? The actual people you are trying to delight: your customers.

Other Ways to Innovate Your Business and Marketing Message:

1. Send a thank you card to all of your clients. Thank them for their business and let them know you are here if they need anything from you.

2. Do small projects on the side for free for clients that may be having financial difficulties.

3. Revamp your static website into a content driven website. You can use wordpress for free and have something up within 12-24 hours.

4. Dive further into your social media networks through LinkedIN, Plaxo, Facebook, or Smaller Indiana.

Take control of your company. Innovate through the downturn and do not give into the fear of losing money or losing your business. Be strong and make a difference!

Social Media Consultants’ Top 2 Dangers and the Solutions

I love social media. I love it. No question about it.

Through all the giddy love and unquestionable dedication to social media in the past few months, I have realized one thing. There is fine line to draw when it comes to embedding yourself into the social media world, especially as a business owner and social media consultant.

The Dangers of Social Media:

Danger 1: Loss of Productivity in Your Offline Work Environment

When I first started getting involved in sites like FriendFeed, Plaxo, LinkedIn, and Smaller Indiana I started to see a slow decrease of my productivity in my work flow. I was spending so much time writing blogs, commenting in FriendFeed, and searching for new content my Clients were starting to suffer. I was missing a few deadlines and not getting the sleep I needed to run a successful and productive company.

I have read more than a few posts in FriendFeed pertaining to this topic. When you become entrenched in a social community you grow to love the content and the people on the site. What do we do when we love something? Invest in it. Plain and Simple.

Solution

• Time Management: Try to set a certain amount of time aside for social media once a day. Set a goal to spend 30-60 mins in the morning and 30-60 mins in the evening (this is just an example). Maybe you decide to spend time on social media at night after you get home. Maybe it is on your lunch break. Manage your time and stick to it.

• Crowd Sourcing: Use your social media communities to help with your work! I recently needed some ideas of where to find stock pictures of run-down gas stations. I posted the question on FriendFeed and within 2 minutes, I had 6 responses! Social Media communities are filled with extremely intelligent and talented people. USE THEM!

Danger 2: The Curse of Knowledge

Most of us on the social media circuit are self-proclaimed social media experts. We love to be the early adopters. We love to try every new and shiny beta out there. We debate and talk about certain sites to the point of beating the conversation to death.

Owning a company that caters to small businesses, I have found myself ROCKED with the curse of knowledge. Most small business owners are not engrained into social media. LinkedIN and Plaxo are the extent in which they enter into the social community realm. For social media tycoons and experts the curse of knowledge can be detrimental when consulting to your small business clients.

“Have you ever tried Twitter? You should really check it out.” ***blank stare*** “Okay, let’s go back to LinkedIN and Plaxo.”

Solution:

It is simple. Remember that the social media fanatics are a completely different crowd than most small business owners. I have tried to slow myself down when discussing social media with a prospective client. I tend to get really excited and go on tangents of social media effectiveness and crowd sourcing in FriendFeed (blah blah blah).

• Get to the source of the pain. Maybe you are overwhelmed by all the sites out there? Maybe you need some help in finding the right sites and managing the content to the sites? You want to get into blogging? The Basics? Sure!

The greatest lesson I have ever learned is actually from the Sandler Sales Course, which I would love to take some day. Ask questions. Get to the source of the problem. Don’t overwhelm with knowledge and wealth of information.

Most people could care less about the amount of knowledge you have about social media. They already know you are good…..They are meeting with you. They want to know how YOU are going to solve THEIR problems. They don’t care about the new THING in social media. They care about how it helps them.