I like the idea of your “slight edge” approach–it’s an idea that I’ve been toying with for a while. I come from the school of thought, though, that if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it right. It’s sort of a “go big or go home” mentality. For the small business owner, it’s fun to dip your toes in and play around with the tools, but during that time, businesses can make some fundamental mistakes that will put them in a messy situation.

I’m still having trouble with the “guerrilla” concept, though In my marketing study and practice, I’ve always seen guerrilla tactics as the down-and-dirty, “undercover” marketing activities (along, sadly, with the junk Jay Conrad Levinson peddles to the masses). I used to play with guerrilla marketing during my college years with pretty good success. I’m somewhat interested in the idea of social media (an interactive, overt marketing approach) as a GENUINE “guerrilla” tactic (undercover, not overt, and certainly not conventional) to set it apart from the noise that we’re experiencing in a crowded market today. Shoot me an email sometime–let’s explore.

Cheers,
Rob

This affects your sale because you are NOT being seen by the person even if you are high on the Search Engine rankings. For all the hype of social networks. They are valuable for building relationships.

I wonder how my grandfather did business. Times were different in his day and he did very well until the 80s when everything crashed.

Relationships were important in his day. We are getting back to them just in a hyper connected way.

Thanks for stopping by and for providing some amazing questions and insights. As the face of online advertising and presence develop I see PPC and SM as very much related from a business perspective. As a business owner, the only reason for having a website at all is to bring people to it. PPC’s ultimate goal is to get a potential customer to click on your link based on a certain keyword search. The online marketplace is evolving and customers are becoming more aware of ‘advertising tricks’ and are looking to more reliable sources like blogs and online word of mouth i.e. social networking both of which fall under the umbrella of social media. Customers are looking to relationship based entities to determine who they do business with online. Social media is a more reliable place to attempt to generate a click. This post isn’t necessarily saying that social media will completely replace traditional advertising its saying that social media is a much better way of connecting with people rather than trying to bombard them with messages they clearly don’t want.

I always ensure that my clients understand the time commitment involved in a social media marketing strategy however, an effective strategy doesn’t have to be incredibly time consuming in fact, I encourage a Slight Edge approach for most of our clients. Social Media doesn’t have to be a dive-in strategy. We often encourage clients to get their feet wet first. There is much curiosity but also much anxiety about social media and I believe that for a business owner, not only can it be incredibly fun, but also fulfilling to get involved and interact with their customer base.

When it comes to guerrilla marketing, I believe that every business has a target market and in short, social media allows businesses to occupy social media space with their target customers. I analyze the businesses demographics and help mold a guerrilla social media strategy tailored specifically for my client’s goals and target customers.

Hope that answers all your questions.
Damien

First, you’re comparing apples to oranges. Social media and PPC are in no way related, nor are they replacements for one another. Here’s a notion: how do customers get to your site in the first place? Social media is a start, but it will not by any means replace traditional advertising for the foreseeable future.

Second is the suggestion that social media is free. A well-played social media strategy takes a huge amount of resources (time and energy) to develop and more resources to maintain.

How do you address these matters with a business owner? How does it in any way pertain to guerrilla marketing?

Cheers,
Rob