Regardless of whether or not corporations can use social marketing for advertising, I don't even think it works. In an earlier post, you poked fun at spam mail and wondered why people were still using it as a means for marketing. I think this falls under the same umbrella: people read blogs for their content, not their ads; people network on sites like Facebook, but don't pay attention the banners. These things get lost in the scenery (thankfully) and I seriously doubt their effectiveness. Government departments, much like corporations, are now looking towards social marketing as a tool to reach their audiences/consumers. If you ask me, there are more effective tools.
Ryan Anderson
· 1 year ago
It may not be necessary right now, but as the Facebook generation grows up and becomes the new business leaders and decision makers who don't read the newspaper or consume media the way our generation does, it's going to become increasingly important.
That said, getting onto Facebook or Myspace does not give you the keys to the social media kingdom. It all comes down to strategy - go where your customers are, listen and engage them honestly... don't just use it as another venue for shouting.
Isabelle - there are plenty of case studies to show that engaging in social media does, in fact, work. The examples you point to are cases of doing it badly. Saying social media doesn't work based on that is the equivalent of sending a badly written press release out to 100 unqualified reporters and then professing that media relations doesn't work. It's not a marketing tactic, so much as something that needs to be built into the business itself.
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That said, getting onto Facebook or Myspace does not give you the keys to the social media kingdom. It all comes down to strategy - go where your customers are, listen and engage them honestly... don't just use it as another venue for shouting.
Isabelle - there are plenty of case studies to show that engaging in social media does, in fact, work. The examples you point to are cases of doing it badly. Saying social media doesn't work based on that is the equivalent of sending a badly written press release out to 100 unqualified reporters and then professing that media relations doesn't work. It's not a marketing tactic, so much as something that needs to be built into the business itself.