Old Media and New Media

Not old media or new media. Traditional marketing (TM) and social media marketing (SMM) share much in common and must be part of a mix.   On the other hand, social media marketing is, in a number of important ways, distinctly different from traditional marketing.

The Marketing Mix Part I

Not only do traditional and social media work together as part of a mix  not to be confused with the marketing mix of product, price, distribution, and promotion – but they also share common elements.

Within promotion, personally selling and sales promotion, as distinct from promotion as a category of marketing, can be both marketing and merchandising. Social media can be both marketing and merchandising. If my definition, and I’m open to challenge, is that marketing is what is done to get your market to step in – traffic – and merchandising is what is every activity you engage in after your market steps in, to generate a transaction, then social media is both marketing and merchandising. If you follow me on Twitter, and you click on my blog because of a tweet you received from me, or someone retweeting my tweet about a post on my blog, that’s marketing. Upon reading my blog, not necessarily Social Media Made easy, but any blog I write, and it encourages you to take an action: buy my book, sign up for a workshop, that’s merchandising. Where it gets a little confusing, but not of any significance if my tweet drives you to my blog (marketing), my blog drives you to my website (marketing) and at my web site you  buy my book or hire me (merchandising).And speaking of born of the same mothers.

Social media marketing is all about personal selling and promotion. We may call it customer service or engagement. When and if you read my blog, and are impressed by my expertise, I’ve sold you on me or my product. It’s different, but it’s also the same.

Born of the Same Mother

I remember, many many years ago, having recently left the hallowed halls of   the University of Georgia with an MSW, and feeling all know-it-all and accomplished with my sparkling shiny new degree. I was at a party and just chatting with a fellow party-goer, I asked, as one does to get a conversation going: “what do you do?” His answer: “business.” At that moment, I was stumped what to say next because nothing seemed less interesting as a way to make a living than business. Then I discovered marketing.

For me, marketing was like creating great art or playing with a band on stage. It engaged both the left and right sides of my brain. It felt, and it still does, as one would feel leading the charge. Years later, again, many years later, I’ve taught marketing, developed marketing curriculum for a community college,  consulted to businesses on developing marketing programs, developed web-based and multimedia marketing campaigns, marketing campaigns for non-profits, and marketing strategies for my own company.  One example of a campaign I developed can be found at Enzymedica, a leading supplement manufacturer, which, four years later is still running the campaign I developed for them. Not every marketing program I’ve developed has worked, but enough that I would describe myself as a successful marketeer (not to be confused with mouseketeer).

The marketing that I have known, as to be differentiated from social media marketing, is now called traditional marketing. Some make the distinction between new marketing and old marketing. Call it what you will: traditional marketing and social media marketing are born of the same mother,    and must complement each other.  That may change in the near future, the 12/16/09 blog post 2010: The Year Marketing Dies,  but now, most marketing strategies include a mix of traditional and social media. Which leads me to my next post: Marketing 101: A Basic Foundation.

Interruptive Advertising

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Interruptive Advertising

In the beginning there was the television commercial. And it was good. We’ll it wasn’t that it was good or bad, it was that we understood, as we have understood with radio commercials, and print advertising before, that these interruptions – ergo “interruptive advertising” – were bringing us information, as in the case of a newspaper and entertainment. It was a tradeoff.  Then came e-mail and spam and we took back control.

Social Media: What Is It?

Yes, its blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and MySpace.

It’s also thousands of other lesser-known networking platforms, Nings, wikis (as in wikipedia), touch points, metrics, SEO,  influencers and raving fans, crowdsourcing, open sourcing, Klout, Squidoo, Posterous, Google Analytics, Biznik, and on and on and on. Not to worry. This blog should begin to make sense of it all soon enough. And you’ll be able to pick and choose what you need to know.

Revolution or Evolution

Social media brainiacs suggest that we could be on the verge of a revolution in the way in which we do business, if not communicate and learn. Maybe it’s just the evolution of stone tablets (try to plot out that history). Either way,  something is happening, something significant for all of us, and however foreign or removed from our everyday lives, it’s coming on strong and unavoidable.

Coming on strong and unavoidable