It’s ok to be a newbie still. Sort of. Marketing tools have changed since the Internet superhighway has weaved a prolific path through households. Is social networking replacing traditional advertising?
It’s time to take a good hard look at your advertising budget. How are you allocating funds? Are you still spending enormous amounts of money on print and commercial advertising? Your company could benefit from social networking. But there’s a catch. There’s always a catch.
Today’s consumers have a multitude of avenues to research products and services. Typically, consumers started with the yellow pages. Now they start with an Internet search box from Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Last year’s phone book has most likely hit the recycle bin or sits on the front porch waterlogged and forgotten.
So how do you jump into this social networking world, with its daunting technology, while still clinging to the old marketing regimen: print ads, commercials, or mailers?
One thing you should know. Consumers are more apt to listen to their peer group or an unbiased consumer over companies advertising programs. The new marketing formulas leveraging social media could present a daunting crossroad. You have heard the social media buzz. Many brands are still holding onto their traditional marketing budgets. Madison Avenue is not letting them off the traditional marketing hook. There’s a lot of money at stake.
Many brands are still wondering: Spend money on traditional advertising or invest in building a social network?
With the explosion in social networking platforms, businesses have become savvier in addressing social media phenomena. As the technology advances and marketing budgets are squeezed tight, smart brands shift marketing dollars to the social network platforms, where the user-community plays a vital role in shaping products and services.
The Key Is Transparency
You could have your stick in that old marketing mud and not want to embrace social network changes. Exposing your company to Twitter and Facebook will force transparency. Consumers have a serious BS meter, and if you are not transparent, they’ll know. Your brand has to be authentic. It has to be real.
You’ll have to go beyond the marketing formulas of old. Marketing dollars are more efficiently spent when the user-community plays a vital role in developing the product and service. When you incorporate a platform strategy that rapidly and effectively captures the community’s voice, it will change how you think about the new era in marketing. Connecting the consumer with the service will create profits, or you could fall flat.
Two-way Chat
A social network will help develop a two-way street so your business objectives can include the important ingredients to your consumer. A social network will help your company harness thoughtful participation and build a remarkable and loyal, perhaps even evangelical, consumer base. If anything, you can readily learn what your consumer is thinking and saying so you can adjust accordingly. And there’s the catch.
A brand that creates an engaging, two-way conversation with the consumer will build the future. The only real catch is pulling your thumb from the old-world fissure and socializing your brand. Oh, and here’s the good part. Did you know that making a fan page on Facebook or Twitter is cheap? Well, it’s cheaper than cheap; it’s downright free.
