Which One is Social Media? BOTH
A recent post by @jimdougherty titled "Why Social Media Marketing Isn't a Long Game" caught my attention briefly. It discussed a FORBES piece titled “The TruthAbout Social Media”, and ended asking: “Is Social Media Marketing a “long game”
or are social goals more accessible than this?” Let me share my 5 cents on the matter.
In my opinion, the real question should read: Is Marketing (stripped
off additional tags) a “long game”? If your answer to this question is yes,
then you should treat SMM likewise.
Marketing has always been about a search to communicate ideas, a
struggle for differentiation, a contest to influence and resonate on people’s minds.
Even when you use marketing to promote a short term objective, there is always
a residual message embedded.
Social Media is a different channel to spread your message,
a powerful one. One that tears apart the very fabrics of old fashion marketing
practices for 2 main reasons:
1.- It levels the plainfield
empowering the consumer’s influence on his or her community. The voice of an individual is not yet
balanced with that of a company, but it is now at heights that enable it to
speak up louder, and ears are listening. Push and Pull strategies are
losing ground to Participate and Embrace. The long run opportunities of this situation
bewilder anyone’s imagination.
2.- It goes beyond the realms of other media
because it is mainly about sharing. To Share to entertain, to gain recognition,
to build a reputation or just for the heck of it. While with other media users
engaged to mainly receive, anyone who engages in Social Media, joined either to
share, receive what someone else is sharing... or both. The
power of Social media is the power of Sharing.
In conclusion, Social
Media Marketing requires a special
understanding, different than traditional Media marketing, but, if you decide
to include Social media as part of your Marketing efforts, then you should
visualize it the same way you feel about Marketing as a whole. Whether it is a
long run or a short one would depend on your perception about marketing itself.
