Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Five Points About Social Media

Toronto-based social media company Sysomos (no, I don't know what that means) understands that many business owners are still confused about the potential of interactive Web marketing tools.

This week it published a great blogpost offering "Five Truths about Social Media" that should give business owners a better idea of where Twitter and blogging fit in to the marketing mix.

Here is my abbreviated version.

1. Social media is not about the tools and services such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Social media is how the tools and services are effectively married with great content, creative ideas, smart strategies and tactics.

2. Social media is not a silver bullet or elixir. Adding some social media into the mix won’t produce miracles if there are other issues such as mediocre products and services, bad customer service, ineffective marketing, or intense competition.

3. A company and its employees have to embrace social media and make it part of the corporate culture.

4. Social media is not a standalone activity. It complements and enhances a company’s other activities.

5. It’s still early days for social media. [But] companies better start thinking why, how and when they want to get into the game.

You can read the full article here.

1 comment:

Gloria Hildebrandt said...

I agree, Rick, that social media are just more tools for promotion, and they can't produce miracles if other parts of the business are inadequate. It's like advertising, which can only help generate awareness and action, but if your offering is poor quality, too expensive, your customer service is annoying or any of many other variables, you won't make the sale. Just don't blame the advertising vehicle. It's just one element of the whole marketing process & every part of it has to be right in order to be successful.