I happened across a blog post this morning by a good friend of mine, Daniel Herndon, who owns an Indianapolis marketing company. Daniel’s post entitled, Indianapolis Marketing vs Indianapolis Social Media, talks about the importance of understanding social media as part of a tool kit instead of a stand alone system.
“Buyer beware – If marketing is not one of the core services than social media is just a buzz word. No single tactic is useful without coming from the approach of marketing a product based on a targeted demographic and good messaging.”
I encourage you to read the post because it gets straight to the point and is short and sweet. This is what I am struggling with…
When are we going to quit arguing what social media actually is…. and start implementing the greatness of what social media has become… ? Social media can be used for internal communication, recruiting, public relations, loyalty programs, and even… yes… targeted demographic marketing. At the core… social media is about story telling and communication. I think that is what Daniel was trying to get across in his post.
Planning, development, building goals, and delivering on promises is fundamental to every aspect of business. This is nothing new. People have been struggling with the implementation of ideas since “marketing” was defined as a concept. If an individual (or company) has a hard time implementing an idea, Facebook Page, or direct mail campaign… either help them… or move on.
The core of your business is about delivering on what you promise. If you are developing a marketing plan… you best be sure social media is part of an overall campaign. If you are actually developing a multiple touch point marketing campaign that delivers (try HotBed Creative)… remember that it is about the numbers and not about the flair.
If a company cannot show return from case studies, with numbers, or by past clients… find some else.
Who cares how the tool (social media) is defined…
Kyle, you're absolutely correct. In my line of work I find that it's easy to waste time arguing the details when we should all get out there to experiment, learn and share.
It is always easier to argue. Let's spend some time implementing!
We can and should discuss the precise definition of tools. Sometimes you want to use a bolt, sometimes a rivet, and sometimes you want to weld two pieces together. It's crucial that we be able to define the tools we use so that we can use them correctly.
My concern is that so many "marketing" or "social media experts" don't seem to able to define what it is they do or what they use. Why should I hire an "expert" if they can't articulate their perspective?
As Nobel Prize Winner Irving Langmuir once said, "Any person who can't explain his work to a fourteen-year-old is a charlatan." If you're a real expert, you can at least describe your tools.
Good post! However, I would argue that for some marketing campaigns it may not make sense to have a social piece…but very rarely.
I completely agree with that!
Defining the tools and describing them are completely different things (in my humble opinion). I can define social media in every which way but that doesn't change the description of Twitter or Facebook. If you cannot define or describe….
Get a new job.