Marketing is much like the fashion industry - Trends come and go, and it's constantly evolving to suit the times. The tool set constantly gets larger with some prospering while others wane depending on the circumstances. The latest "soup du jour" is social media marketing and apparently it's going to change the world. For the record, I'm actually an advocate of social media marketing; if done properly it represents a great opportunity for reaching people without the need for huge media spends on TV, print, or radio. It focuses on the fundamental traits any relationship requires to flourish - trust and communication. But, I don't believe social media is the panacea for all organizational marketing ills. Effective marketing is about meeting the needs of your market and using the appropriate methods to do so.
For instance, is the local forklift dealership going to benefit from adopting a strong social media marketing presence when their customers spend most their days in a warehouse and tend to be blue collar males that enjoy football, porno, and books about war? I doubt it. To be fair, I think the forklift dealership would benefit by having a good website with valuable content and possibly even some social media integration (I.e YouTube embedded product videos). But, for any business I think there are many marketing tools that need to be considered before someone tries to convince you to drop everything and make social media your only priority. As far as small business goes some estimates say just 1 percent maintain a social media presence. Again, I think there are many opportunities where it would benefit small businesses, but I think a large portion of small businesses are still struggling to come to terms with the benefit of just having a well developed website.
There is a lot of hype regarding social media marketing and a number of so-called "experts" trying to capitalize on it. Social Media is important and you should be aware of it, but in the end it's all still marketing and additional tools to use when the job requires it. Marketing will continue to evolve and it's important to note some practices are timely and some are timeless. Your market will ultimately tell you which ones work. It might be a hand shake, it might be a presentation, it might be a website, or it might be a social media strategy. Chances are it will be a mix of a few, so experiment and choose the tools that seem to work best.
Thoughts? Please submit comments below OR send me an email OR give me a call at 306 229 9437. If you like what you see I also offer an email subscription for receiving new blog updates. Thanks for reading.
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