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.
I think TM and SMM are both about influencing a want into a need. It’s how they go about it that’s different. TM can be interruptive, or informative, as SMM can be interruptive or informative. SMM is learning quickly that interruptive is less acceptable.
Of the 4 elements that define TM: price, product, distribution, and promotion, SMM is more about promotion. Many social media marketers continue to use social media as an advertising, sales promotion, publicity/public relations tool. You can find broadcasts for sales, buying reminders, and commercials all over the social media channels. This is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole: traditional marketing into the social media model. It can work as part of the mix, but if that is how you define social media marketing, it isn’t going to fly.
I think it’s greatest value is for personal selling, with the emphasis on the personal. What you are selling is you!
As consumers, we have always valued doing business with people who know us or at the very least, demonstrate an interest in us and our purchases. Genuine or not, and we prefer genuine, that interest goes a long way. There is a reason why contact software, particularly that which is designed for sales people, includes information about an account’s family, birthdays, etc. We should all be able to think of someone we prefer to do business with. It’s about relationship, engagement, and social media has changed the way in which we can engage with our customers. More and more it became about price, but social media reintroduces the concept of customer loyalty.
Tags: need, new media, old media, traditional, want
