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02.04.08 Social Media To Become A Mainstream Business Asset In 2009  By
Bryan Rhoads As the economic dust settles and continues to stir, impacting budgets around the world, there are still two constants that we need to keep within perspective; people and products. We still have people. Fewer in most instances but they continue to be a constant resource in most if not all firms. And in some cases, they are the only resource for the foreseeable future. And products… the goods and services produced by the labor of those very same people. Again, potentially fewer in number and in somewhat lesser demand, but products none the less that are necessary for work, play and our daily lives. These two constants just so happen to be the main and fundamental ingredients in social media and online social communications. Thus… the economic crisis we all face will prove to be a significant catalyst and forcing function for increased reliance on social media from business, marketing departments and the strategies we use to communicate our products and the people who create them. For those not in economics, an externality is an indirect impact of a transaction… or an unrealized cost or benefit of that economic activity. An oft used example for a negative externality is the cost of pollution from the internal combustion engine or the positive externality of the same activity towards public safety or the convenience from increased mobility and the increased wealth that cars and trucks generate.
Social Media can be a positive externality of fewer budget dollars and fewer resources in marketing departments. And for those who champion its benefits should take this opportunity to increase its effectiveness through leveraging the resources required for effective social communications… i.e. the people and the stories behind the products they create. My strategy, and potentially yours too, will be to leverage those resources still intact and available to you. Just who are those people? What are those unique and impactful stories that lie beneath the surface? And in this age of increased customer power and media noise, aren't those the more interesting and relevant messages we should be communicating to our customers? Those stories and the social connection to the very people behind the products and services will have much greater ROI than our traditional push marketing tactics and messaging. Why would you continue to invest in static CMS workflows, or contrived product messaging from marketers? And why are most Internet marketing departments still using the "publish and pray" approach to online where you create collateral, publish it and pray that your users find it and even more of a stretch find it useful? In many ways, 2009 and the economic crisis may be the final death nail to the push era of marketing (generally considered to be 1950-2000). We've managed to hold on to many of our push strategies that include the expensive/complicated "publish and pray" corporate .com web site to direct email marketing. Push will still be useful as a delivery vehicle, but people should be the content. Traditional marketing messaging will prove even more ineffective and now even more costly. Formulating more social strategies into our digital marketing mix will accelerate as pay-per-play and agency dollars are increasingly scarce. 2009 may be the catalyst for truly integrating social marketing aspects into all of our business and marketing communications. Is 2009 the year that social media becomes mainstream? Comments
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