Seems like everywhere you look small businesses and large companies have caught the social media bug. Whether they showing early signs with the scratchy throat, or have a full blown case of social-media-isis, everyone is either in the game or trying to figure out how to get in the game.

Companies with the budget to pay for major marketing strategies are turning to their marketing department or traditional marketing firms with questions and requests for social media management. Traditional marketing is billboard, TV commercials, mailers, newspaper and other print advertising and they all have the same methodology and goals in mind: Blast your message to the masses and get your business as much visibility as possible.

Some firms have re-branded themselves New Media marketing but even that is rooted in methods like email and pay-per-click marketing which amounts to online advertising. The problem is that in most cases, social media principles contradict the principles of traditional marketing. When was the last time you clicked on a sponsored link or were happy to open an email from a business?

What's Your Strategy?

Social media is anti-advertising. It’s about building relationships through engaging your audience. People now have limitless choices on who to do business with and you can bet that they wont choose the guy with the billboard on your favorite boulevard, or at the top of your favorite search engine! A lot of marketing specialists are simply taking blast marketing methods and implementing them into their social media strategy and after weeks or months of spamming wonder why they aren’t getting results.

So a few questions to ask your social media manager:

• Do we have a strategy that’s rooted in relationship building?
• Is your social media strategy integrating with your current marketing and not contradicting with it?
• Are you getting the results?

If the answer is no or you’re unsure, consider consulting with a social media marketing firm that stands first on relationship building and then on a proven strategy.

The Battle for New Media Communication, Is E-Mail 2nd?

The Wall Street Journal recently posted an article if it was the end of the E-mail era?  The post showed that only 276 million used e-mail often and over 300 million used Social Network sites more.

These are staggering numbers as E-mail was a common activity a few years back.  However, technology trends has changed dramatically over the years and I can see why Social Network sites has taken over e-mail in communication.

First of all breaking down the concept of email is pretty simple to the structure.  The only form of engagement is one communication channel which is sent back and forth from the sender to the receiver, no other interaction or engagement is involved.

Social Networks on the other hand provide real time communication and engagement.  There is no delay in sending out data, the interaction you get is in real time.

Examples of people using Social Media more than e-mail is when clients are trying to be reached the normal procedure would be to call or e-mail the client.  Well the trick nowadays is to either text or Social Network (Facebook, Twitter, etc) your client as they tend to respond quicker and more in a timely manner.

We are in the generation “Now”.  Social Media proves that no longer are communication channels stacked and archived, the barrier has been broken where instant communication is becoming the Norm.  More and more people are utilizing Social Media to be the 1st lines of communication than e-mail right now.  Should be interesting to see what’s next in Social Media for the New Media Communication of the future.