Social Media - the answer to all Marketing questions?
28th May 2015

There is much discussion about Social Media Marketing at the moment and like most things new-ish it is hopeful, enthusiastic and all too often wildly inaccurate. Social Media Marketing (SMM) is not some magic bullet marketing tool. It is a way of reaching your target audience(s). It's also not true to say it is free. The media of Social Media may be free, but someone has to spend the time writing messages, articles, responses, blogs, monitoring etc. It could be the most time consuming (and therefor expensive) part of your marketing armoury.

However it is true to say it is potentially very exciting because it offers a rare opportunity to hold a dialogue with some of the more influential members of your brand's equivalent of the Barmy Army! Most Marketing is essentially a monologue, even that which has an enticing response mechanism, such as direct marketing. SMM is based on providing a location for a conversation that can involve many people and can offer an opportunity to get potential and existing customers involved in dialogue about things that, hopefully, relate positively to your brand.

Think of it as another marketing tool (so make sure you will reach enough of your target audience, cost effectively) and allow for much planning and hard work and then pile in and see what works! But don't get involved unless you intend to do it properly and stick at it. It won't happen overnight.

The key, as with all marketing communications, is in the content. Even Google says that in spite of all the tricks employed by brands to get their websites higher on the search engine rankings, the most important factor is the contents of the site.