Social media has taken a solid foothold in the world of marketing and its not going anywhere. The fact that Facebook and Twitter icons are showing up on television ads for major brands means we are past the tipping point. Social media is here to stay and its more than the mass adoption by Internet users that has caused this to happen.
The panacea of Facebook and the machine gun distribution of information on Twitter engage so many users that social networking-based media strategies are becoming a staple in most marketing plans. So, what makes a good social media strategy? A quick look at why television, radio, direct mail and other forms of advertising work reveals why.
If you boil down advertising and marketing to its most basic principles it is about one thing: getting a person’s attention. If you do it in a mass broadcast strategy you are trying to do it on a mass scale. If you do it on a one-to-one marketing format, you are using technology to get one person’s attention at a time. Here are a few examples:
Television: Television has been king now since the 60s. TV ads have the built-in strengths of visuals, sound and brevity. When you engage a lot of senses at once and you hit a quick single message, yes, your TV ad is going to work if you sustain your campaign.
Print: The Internet has clobbered print advertising lately because the Recession has everyone wanting to measure their marketing expenses more closely and the Internet does that better. However, there are some undeniable benefits of print related to gaining and keeping attention. It has staying power (keepability and passability), can be very visual and is subject to excellent design. I recently saw a print ad, an insert into Texas Monthly, that was simple black text on white paper folded into a booklet. It was the best insert I have ever seen, so much so I plan to use the concept for a future DSM piece. See, what happens with print? When we like it, we tend to keep it and that extends the shelf life of the benefit. It gets your attention according to its strengths.
Email Marketing: This database marketing method is the new direct mail. Why is it so effective? Sure it’s inexpensive but more importantly, it has two very effective web-based features. Email gets you into someone’s mainstream of communications and it does so without being too intrusive. One properly written subject line and you can get your nugget or offer in front of your targets fairly easily. For its strengths, it has the capability to get a person’s attention while their day is in progress.
So as we look at social media and ask the question how can it be best for marketing. The answer to that question starts with examining how social media best gets and keeps one’s attention. And, so it begins. By isolating the communications benefits of a medium, you can learn how to use it to get and keep attention. On my Dog Star Media Facebook, I have hundreds of followers. I have also friended many clients and prospects on Facebook and I watch what they post. And, only one or two are really using it right because most are forcing it. Using social media and using social media properly to achieve marketing goals are two different things. If you are scattershooting or blatantly promoting a special, you are not really using it properly. If you are building conversations and keeping people’s attention over a long period of time, the groundwork you are laying in social media will pay off both short-term and long term. Social media is like being at a party or a day in school. Lots of little storylines are going on and if you hear one you like (in other words it gets your attention), then you can opt in or stop down for more. By participating in the social element of the medium (which is how it helps people gain and keep attention), you are in position to use the medium to your advantage.
Can we help you figure out a way to use social media to your benefit? Sure. Will you participate properly to make it work for you? Only if you join in and understand how it connects people. And, that is what social media is all about. For more information on social media strategies, please email me at donald@dogstarmedia.com.
