Social Media Can’t Be a Campaign? I Beg to Differ!

By Scott Hepburn | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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.

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Topics: Social Media
  • Hi Scott,
    I agree with you that the campaign is not dead. I also don't see an ongoing, sustaining effort being mutually exclusive to use of campaigns. You should have an ongoing presence in key social networks for listening and engaging as appropriate and then incremental campaigns to support new product launches, new thought leadership initiatives, etc. Trying to execute a campaign in the absence of an ongoing presence is questionable strategy. Both works better than either/or.

    -Don B @donbart
  • Considering that social media is just another tool in the overall field of business tools, I'd agree that it's naive to think it can't be a short-term campaign.

    Look at "traditional" PR - say you have a client product to launch and you need to get it in the news and in front of a certain amount of customers within 6 weeks.

    Swing that over to its most basic equivalent using social media. You combine Twitter and blogger outreach to spread the message along with a social media news release. You connect with the power players on Digg, Reddit, Yahoo Buzz, etc, to hit front page/popular submissions. You get the desired effect in 6 weeks as well (maybe even less, given the outreach).

    Isn't this a campaign within a certain timescale?
  • Hey Scott,

    It's an interesting discussion and like you I think it is too early. However, product promotions going forward might be though as posing questions to the targeted communities where conversations and feedback will be garnered. I do also think that social media needs to be a long-term adopted strategy but there is also the opportunity for focused vertical conversational strategies that are geared toward bringing attention, reaction and response to specific topics or campaigns. If people give a marketer permission to receive the campaign then why could there not be campaigns?

    To Bernoff's point, I think the beach-head is much easier to manage when one is participating in social media rather than just busting on the scene with a campaign where the tactic is completely interuptive and spam-like.

    What's your take?
  • I agree that crisis communication is much more effective (and easier) when you've been active in social media before the crisis, rather than parachuting in when your reputation's in danger. On the other hand, an established customer relations program isn't a bulletproof defense against bad publicity. HOW you respond, rather than WHERE you respond, will determine whether you can get out of the doghouse with customers.

    With regards to marketing and promotions, I think this notion that consumers are fed up with marketing and will revolt violently against campaigns in our new sandbox is naive. Sure, we'll gripe and moan, but we always do. But we'll still buy stuff, and we'll buy more of it thanks to the ads we see on social platforms -- whether you call them ads, campaigns, or anything else.
  • I have actually covered this subject before Scott in this piece: http://thelostjacket.com/marketing/social-media...

    Here's my take: You can end campaigns within the social media space. However, you need to assure your users and customers that you are changing it into something else. The dialogue needs to be open in order for you effectively pull this off.
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