Social Media

I am on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

If you send me a LinkedIn connection request, I will accept it.

If you follow me on Twitter I will follow you back.

An overview of Social Media

Can you actually hear "social media"? Or you may even let this storm roar over you? Well, as always, travelling in IT/Marketing and for the steady flow of new business, you should take a closer look. Maybe social media is really the "holy grail" of advertising?

What exactly is Social Media?

First: Who listens to social media should always think of this as marketing: Social Media Marketing. It is, a form of marketing . In my view the best definition of social media is : "In today's connected world, ordinary people will witness the news, and share it with others.  Leaving the paid media without any paying audience".  In other words: In the past, before social media, it took professional media, including newspapers, television, radio, etc., to bring a message to the people. Today, in the social media era, spreading the "people" news is a lot easier and does not require paid media.

This has far-reaching consequences

Not only do the paid media have no guaranteed audience and what is a message is no longer determined by an elite. With elite I mean, for example, journalists, publishers, newspaper and TV investors, etc.. Strictly speaking, brokers who decide what is news, how valuable it is, is decided by society.  Spreading a message does not need money or extensive know how (it needs today neither presses nor television studio broadcasting licenses), you can get a message to the people.  A company that builds rubbish, can no longer hide behind good public relations.

To summarise you need to build an online community, giving customers and employees an opportunity to air their grievance in a way that is productive to all parties and more importantly in a way you control; when your company is Googled it should be the first entry in the list and the second, third and fourth etc.  Openly connect with people on your company Facebook page, auto follow back connections on Twitter; be open and accepting of others within the social media world.  You must engage with your customers, this gives them a forum to explain how happy or unhappy they are.  This gives you a chance to address their concerns and quickly adapt to an ever changing marketplace.

Conclusion

Social media marketing is important, but it is not the "Holy Grail" of advertising. As a marketer you should deal with it. At least you should follow the activities of other social media marketers. (Why you should secure your Twitter account and also like me to follow?) Social Media Marketing has a long term interest. But - when it really comes to stimulate business and generate leads then you should do it but like Amazon or Google.  What do they do? Now, Amazon sends me regularly offers via e-mail. Google relies entirely on the good old snail mail. Just recently I received a great sales letter (aka direct mail).  If anyone knows what works in advertising, it is probably Google.