There is always debate.
There is always debate on the topics of social media… the black magic of the business world. Should we do it? What is the best way to do it?
Traditional marketing, advertising and PR firms do not know what to do. “Social Media” companies do not have enough traditional strategy to make something stick. We are all scraping to find something to make this powerful tool work. It is going to be a long process of customization, personalization, and strategy.
My company, Brandswag, started out as a small business design and marketing firm in Indianapolis. We have thus grown to a 5 person shop dealing with graphic design, web design, and social media/internet marketing. The transition happened pretty naturally because all of us were so involved in social media already… Why not try to leverage this amazing tool for business benefit? And it has worked… to an extent. The tool is broken. Social media should be used strictly with a traditional strategy. Hire a traditional marketing firm. Hire a Public Relations firm.
This is not the “save-me-from-the-economy” tool. It is a new thing. It is a new product that is being slowly pushed and pulled apart to make it work. I am far from an “expert” and there are only a few that can take that title (Chris Brogan and Douglas Karr). We all have little pieces of the pie to maximize a marketing strategy.
What are we to do? Work together.
Traditional marketing, PR, and advertising companies need to open up their minds to the tool and also the opposite way. Social media and internet marketing companies need the traditional strategy and marketing of the agency. Let’s work together to measure and get results.
We are all in this together. We have (at our fingertips) a tool that could transform the way we communicate.
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Wow, in the same sentence as Chris Brogan! Thanks! I really like to think of the entire landscape as content producers. In one way or another we’re all trying to execute compelling content strategies… whether it’s mobile, voice, email, direct mail, blogging, press releases, etc…
The trick is understanding how to automate and leverage the content across all these options without the need for a lot of effort and cost. That’s where we really need to work together.
We should not be competing anymore… except with untrustworthy vendors who are just trying to snatch every dollar. Customers are scattered, some still read the newspaper… many new ones use Search Engines.
Finding the right solution for your customer and understanding how each medium works is what’s in our best interest as companies who wish to survive and build our clients’ success.
Great post!
Kyle – I like what you are saying. To me, it doesn’t make sense to me to silo SM into exclusively single disciplines. It is fractured because we have tried to split it up into the various domains for “ownership” when we should be collaborating and communicating.
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