I’ve been reading a lot of blogs written lately that would seem to indicate, based on their titles, that Social Media is dead. It isn’t. Quite the opposite is true. One of the first, and the best of the lot, is the John Jantsch post titled “Why Social Media Doesn’t Matter Anymore.” The point these people are making is that Social Media has reached the tipping point. It’s pervasive; just there, in much the same way as the stove in our kitchen, or Google, is just there. [If you haven't read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, I highly recommend it.]
That’s true unless “there” is someplace where it just isn’t true.
Statistically, and historically, we here in NE CT, are behind the rest of the country in adopting any technology based tool and social media is no different. We’re probably two years behind what I saw in Kansas City last October. So, demographics will change the situation a bit. Facebook is the only SM tool being used here to any recognizable extent and I see that as Google Local without the Google. We are very much still experiencing the cache that comes with being an early adopter. It’s still novel here.
A great portion of the rest of the country is already moving on to mobile media. Yelp will now overlay the image on your I-Phone with information for nearby businesses. Foursquare declares you the Mayor of a location you visit more frequently than anyone else. The key component in marketing is understanding the people you want to market to. If they all have I-Phones, target media and applications they are most likely to enjoy using. If they’re just starting to set up camp on Facebook, that’s where you need to be. Some are still back with print and that’s ok too. Meet them where they want to spend their time.
I think the problem with social media is the problem one sees in any kind of marketing. It starts out as conversation between friends, grows to a medium of information exchange, then a bunch late adopters jump in, and whether through laziness or misinformation, jam the mailboxes with junk mail, the email boxes with spam, and Facebook with dozens of blatant self-promoting pieces that turn everybody off. It continues at that level for a period of time while late adopting newcomers and early adopting drop-outs cancel each other out. Effectiveness for any intended purpose drops through this period of time to nearly zero at the end. Finally something new takes over and the old method dies. Marketers leave, and once again, it’s just friends talking – old friends who haven’t adopted the new ways.
It’s the cycle of life of marketing vehicles. Saddle up the horses, we’re foursquare into yelping. Charge up those I-Phones and Androids! We’re going mobile – or at least the rest of the world will be! My horse is down and won’t be ready to ride until about 2012.
Erin Perry, Owner