Same As It Ever Was. Only Faster.

To quote Yogi Berra, it's like deja-vu, all over again. These days I'm having the same conversations I had with clients nine years ago. Then, the subject was email. It seemed to be an ideal solution to the need to make communication with customers nimble, relevant and inexpensive. The majority of my conversations at the time seemed to revolve around helping marketers understand email and how to implement it as a marketing tool.

Today, those same conversations focus on social media: What it is. Who uses it. And how to implement it in their businesses.

A little bit of perspective
A smart advertising guy once said, "The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interest them, and sometimes it's an ad." The same can be said of social media. People care about ideas, not that they read them on Twitter. So hopping on the social media bandwagon doesn't get you nearly as far as great ideas communicated in a creative, compelling way.

What has changed
Social media has changed one thing: Conversations between the people you care about happen faster, through multiple channels. And the pace is accelerating. Marketers can quickly find themselves playing a game of catch-up or they can devote resources to monitoring, then joining, social media conversations about their brands. Want to build credibility in the social media arena? The latter approach is far more effective.

The bottom line
1) The channels we use to communicate will continue to evolve. 2) Good ideas and creative communication are a constant. 3) The pace of communication will continue to accelerate. As marketers, we have to focus on numbers 2 & 3, while continuing to adapt to emerging media.

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From August Insights, August Communication Consultants' newsletter for people interested in the intersection of marketing and technology. You can subscribe at www.augustcommunication.com.

Comments

[Mark Tosczak]

Well, one other thing has changed with social media. Now, sometimes, other people can change the entire online conversation and overall perception of your brand, whether you like it or not (think 'Dell Hell' as a classic example). That suggests that social media isn't just another channel to approach with creativity and worthwhile content, but also a channel that holds risk if your brand doesn't deliver value, or delivers bad value or customer service. And that's another argument for being there.

[Ian Joyce]

Good point, Mark. I've said countless times that being involved in social media creates the expectation that you're going to listen and use what you learn to change. There's plenty of risk in failing to live up to that expectation.