Anti-Social Media?

I must be a dinosaur, a fifty-two year old dinosaur. It makes sense with the rapid compression of time these days.

I blame the worldwide web. It takes much less time to be rendered obsolete when everything is instantaneous.

What the hell am I talking about?

Social media. Specifically how social media has evidently turned business on its head, at least the marketing business.

I don’t get it. I admit it. There. I feel better already. I don’t understand how otherwise smart business people have been duped into thinking that they need to focus all their marketing activity and energy on social media like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, et al.

I understand the customer owns the brand. What they think, say and do drives perception that is reality. Got it. But does this ongoing dialogue occur in a vacuum? Of course not. The onus is still on you, the brand purveyor, to start the dialogue. It still begins with defining who you are, what you do, and why it matters, in terms that are relevant and meaningful to prospects and customers.

Wholesale abandonment of this basic model seems to be the modus operandi of marketing folks these days. Lusting after anecdotal case studies that claim thousands of customers acquired with no marketing expenditures, all based on positive peer-to-peer tweets, is the modern day equivalent of “gold fever”.

I believe there is a role in the marketing mix for social media, but it isn’t the panacea that many claim. If it were, people wouldn’t still be scratching their heads attempting to monetize it.

Things change. New ideas rise, mature and fall, replaced by even newer ideas. It was ever thus. People mine fool’s gold. Always have. Always will.

Simple, direct, and clear messages delivered to the right audience, at the right time, in the right place – from their point of view – will always serve your brand well. It is still the fundamental underpinning of every strong brand. I’m betting my business on it. I think it’s a safe bet.