I spent the day sitting on a tourism board over the past week. Our conversation naturally ebbed towards marketing our destination as our day progressed. In fact, marketing was the obvious topic within seconds of starting the day. It was inevitable as everyone had their ideas on how to make our destination the most sought after place on the planet.
Ultimately our round table came to strategies on how we could market this "place to be" and as is common, the ugly step child, social marketing was brought up as a last possibility.
A few of us were very adamant that social marketing, be it blogging or networking online, become strategies that we definitely should use. They were needed. In fact the statistic of 74% of people going traveling start researching their destination online was even brought up. Others still just couldn't grasp why we would even care to use such an immature marketing means. After all, the time necessary was debilitating and almost impossible.
It got me wondering why, after all the success of media darlings like facebook.com and the successes of bloggers world wide, there was any conversation at all. It seemed like something that we needed and that everyone would embrace. Because we didn't all embrace social marketing, or at least an online version of it, I came home to think about why.
There are a few reasons that I think that social networking isn't widely accepted by established business owners or managers. For some it could be the difficulty of developing a human resource plan but most of it I think comes down to one thing.
The fear of change.
Now before you say, of course, older marketers would fear the new concepts I will tell you this is a statement that is not age relative, even if on the whole established business people are a little older, and they in fact do consist of a larger number of the dissident marketers. Of course they have more of the jobs within established businesses. Just as a fact, some of the best social marketers are older. They are also smarter when it comes to how they market their product. Their product being the point.
This statement seems to be related simply to "classic" marketing training or the belief that all that was, is what will be. Let me explain. Marketing products has taken on a new form in today's economy. It is harder and harder to decide how to market a product. The old model of find the media [radio, newspapers, magazines, television] and spray out the advertising always worked. There wasn't a million places the consumer could go to get their information.
Now you have bloggers that report news faster and more cleanly, because they aren't limited to a five minute television section or a one page newspaper spread. You also have websites that deal with a particular subject niche specifically rather than mediums like newspapers that deal with a little bit of everything. All these new media are attracting advertisers as well. Every business in the world now has a newsletter and the great ones attract thousands of readers, which then let's them believe people could advertise within their newsletter as well.
The market has enormous options for advertisers - marketers if you will. Now here in lies the problem. Old style marketing is not getting the bang for the buck and longer. Why?
Partly because there is so much to spray with and partly because old world tactics are being applied to new world marketing. In short people are using blogs, websites and social networking as if it were a newspaper, television or the radio. It is tantamount to loading a cannon with a small bullet and expecting a ship to be felled. Social marketing, or the new marketing, is really like the Atom Bomb. It is bringing something completely different to the party. To use it's power you need to understand how it is best applied. You can't just all run around using old guns with atom bombs in them. But that is what we are doing with marketing.
10 years ago the most expensive spot to advertise was the lead banner on Yahoo.com. It was easy for a marketing agency to see that thousands upon thousands came to this site so we should put our "brand" in front of the masses. It didn't work. Net result: these new mediums don't work.
Old marketing is not dead but old marketing applied to new mediums is never going to work. Social networking, blogging and website interactions are about delivering a complete experience and a better product. A product customized to the consumer.
Old marketing is telling people "we have a product you should buy" while new marketing is asking people "what do you want within our niche and how can we make it just yours?" You can't apply the old marketing mentality to the new weapons. You need to completely change the concept of the business. In my time on this tourism board, social networking is the exact medium to help deliver a beautiful, complete and interactive experience. In fact, the traveler would and should become the content via testimonial observations. It would be perfect and I expect it will be a large part of the end result.
So yes, the entire business model must change or unfortunately you will be changed [probably financially] even if you don't want to. Why are some people reticent of using social media/marketing? Because so far, when they try it they don't get the result they want or had. There is still a place for commodity items and traditional marketing to still work. However, I'm betting your marketing will begin to focus on the retailers or distribution channels that are able to break through the media clutter. You'll have to focus here because your marketing dollars won't be able to do it alone. A distribution channel will use all the commodity dealer's marketing money combined to try and be the loudest in the market place. Risky business though; especially if your competitor is talking nicely with your customer via the phone, blog and a social scene create online. If you are unique the only place to be is on the web. We're not telling you to think established mediums won't work. We are telling you that you'll just have to get better at using them to make them work for you like they used to. Each medium, including social marketing, has a place in your marketing plan. It is going to get even crazier in the next ten years so get researching and start evolving.
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." - Benjamin Franklin
So the question remains; does social marketing work? Yes, if you are committed to using it in the manner it was created. That is to say, to socially connect people with you, not just your business idea, directly. You and then hopefully your organization. This is not just a new weapon you can throw an ad at and hope for the result you used to get.
This is about embracing how you give and get information from your customers. Your customers who might even be your designers.
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