Media Emerging

Time for me to get on my soapbox…

While catching up on blog reading, I found this nugget from Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff in a David Berkowitz piece:

[Bernoff] said unequivocally that “social media is always an ongoing activity,” and marketers should stop thinking about it as a campaign. He discussed how customers are talking to each other and said, “The only way to succeed is to become a part of this conversation in a long-term and permanent way.”

I’m a big fan of Bernoff’s and Charlene Li’s Groundswell, but I have to disagree with Josh here. Call me a renegade, but I reject the assertion that there’s only one way to succeed in social media. We’re still in the Wild West here, folks, and it’s a little early for anyone to be playing sheriff.

Yes, in most many cases, the long-term approach — one that resembles customer service — is the best approach. But it’s not the only viable approach. Indeed, it’s not even the best approach in all cases, necessarily.

Berkowitz takes a more measured approach:

If you’re a marketer, you may only be able to sign short-term contracts and plan for just a year or so ahead. Regardless of what you’re doing on paper, you have to have the mindset that your strategy is paving the way for a perpetual commitment, even if the tactics continually change.

It’s a less authoritarian view than the purists prefer, and more realistic, too. As I wrote last week, you have to baby-step into social media. I think David’s vision of dabbling in the short-term as a gateway to long-term, sustained change is how social media gets a seat at the table.

Is there room for campaigns? For short-term, instant-results engagements? Yes, I think there is. The list of success stories may be shorter, but it would be arrogant of us to declare the strategy a dead end.

But what do I know? I’m a renegade.

Are your views of social media out of touch with reality?

In two weeks as Ritz Marketing’s social media guy, I’ve learned a lot about social media, people’s awareness of it, how it’s perceived, and how you sell it. Here, take a look:

• Facebook. Everyone wants to know about Facebook.
   
• Twitter. Tweeter. Twitting. People have heard of it, but they don’t get it, and they still scoff…
• …except when they don’t. More and more companies acknowledge that they need to “Get on Twitter.”
• Talking about “community” and “engagement” doesn’t win you the account. It’s still important, but you better be fluent in phrases like “results,” “increase sales,” and “ROI”.
   
• Despite the wishes of Radian6, SM2, Scout Labs and others, social media monitoring is a foreign concept to most companies. Even after you explain it, many don’t want to invest in it.
• Take baby steps. If you try to explain how 37 social media bells and whistles work in harmony, you’ll get glazed eyeballs. Slow down. Give ‘em small bites.
• “Sure, we want social media…can you do it all for us?”
• On Strategy vs. Tactics: Purists look down on you if you focus on tactics instead of strategy. Newsflash: The guys with the checkbooks just wanna know what you’re gonna do for them with their money. Sorry, that’s tactics.
• SEO = Left Hand. Social Media = Right Hand. It’s amazing how often the two aren’t working together.
• If your company has “Marketing” in its name, you better be prepared to explain what social media has to do with marketing.

So, what “real world” lessons have you learned about social media?