I have to confess, I picked the title I did for this post after I came across a number of other blogs that had the same identical title. I couldn't resist. There are apparently a number of bloggers advocating using social media to replace more expensive marketing strategies, especially in light of the current economic crisis.
There are also a number of bloggers writing that social media marketing is too new, unproven, and that it's dangerous to throw out the old proven methods regardless of the current economic situation. As is common in the blogosphere, a healthy debate is underway. It's an interesting debate, but I would argue that social media marketing should be on your "to do" list regardless of economic conditions.
There has been an increase in social media usage in recent months, according to the Comscore Media Metrix, but it's probably not tied in any direct way to the current economic conditions.
Social media as a marketing tool can be, by its very nature, counter-intuitive. That's especially true if your looking at it without considering the larger shift in how we communicate and gather information on the internet.
Marketing strategies have traditionally been promotional and designed to push a message out to intended targets. Social media is much more about attraction than promotion. Thanks to technology, we can filter out broadcast forms of communications.
This new reality is not more or less true when the economy is in a downturn, but the lower-cost aspects of SMM might have more appeal to budget conscious decision makers who are trying to deal with harsh economic conditions.
What we should intuitively know about life, even while in the economic crisis we're in, is that if "we keep doing what we've been doing, we're going to keep getting what we've been getting." The very definition of insanity is to think that isn't true. We have to change habits if we want to change results.
If big advertising campaigns and old-school PR efforts are what you've always done, and now you're finding they're either too expensive and/or not working as well as they used to, then consider trying something different. It doesn't have to be all or nothnig. Consider adding social media marketing to the mix as you're forced to cut budgets in other areas anyway.
Because digital immigrants are now using search engines the way we used to use the yellow pages and joining digital natives in more and more online activity, it only makes sense to be engaged in "google friendly" efforts if you're marketing a product or service to us.
There are plenty of anecdotal indications and very real and common sense considerations when contemplating your own decision making in this area. I would refer you to my colleague Dave Evan's new book Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day for some excellent case studies.
Dave's book can guide you through the process of establishing a social media marketing program. If you're in need of professional consultation, then I recommend meeting with the FG SQUARED team to get an assessment of your overall situation.
FG SQUARED has been out front in creating its own internal plan for utilizing social media to market the firm. Our view is that it's a good idea regardless of the economic situation.
Even though it's too early for empirical data to prove it, the groundswell of digital activity and self-developing online communities will force us all to use social media marketing at some point in order to remain relevant, much less competitive.
