When viewing my Facebook updates this morning, I was once again faced with answering a question regarding what the best advertising methods were for a campaign. However, what left me with my mouth hanging open and a feeling of disbelief was the fact that this question was posted by a local marketing and design firm that advises clients from around the State of Michigan.
Now this may well have been a strategically placed question, to see how different demographics responded. However, for me this signaled that they may not be sure sure what our local economy would responded to, and needed some guidance. I was pleased to see that someone had already answered with the answer of “it depends on your audience but social media is the best”. However as I read this response I was automatically formulating a response of my own. Determining the correct marketing mix for your product or service depends heavily on your audience, however it also hinges on a variety of other factors. These other factors include the type of product or service that you are trying to market, as well as making sure you have the right balance of marketing tools and linking all of the tool boxes in your toolbox together. After all, a nail may not be of much use if you don’t have a hammer to pound it in with, and without the nail, something is not being held together.
Image from Mike Volpe's Social Media is BS presentation http://www.hubspot.com/webinars/social-media-is-bs/
Mike Volpe’s presentation of “Why Social Media is Bullsh*t” struck me as a daring thing to say until I viewed his entire presentation. Mr. Volpe was not saying that social media shouldn’t be used as a marketing strategy. Instead he was pointing out that nothing can exist in a vacuum. In order for social media to succeed and “revolutionalize your business”, you need to make sure it connects with other inbound marketing tools such as SEO, blogs, the correct keywords, etc. But to me the key message was that to create a successful marketing strategy, you need to link everything together. Social media should only be one part of your strategy; integrated with the other possibly “traditional” forms of advertising. And not only this, but it is imperative that all of your techniques need to link together and feed each other. To summarize, have social networking sites direct people to your website, have your website tie to your company blog, have your printed pieces show your website or phone number, your business cards include web information as well as your Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages, etc.
CEdge Social 