I’m not going to lie. While I have been writing copy for what seems like forever, not until social media came along did I feel my words were actually making a connection with my audience.
Direct mail, even email, may be addressed to your customers, donors, members and prospects by name. But short of face-to-face conversations, there is nothing quite so powerful and promising for a marketer than having the opportunity to interact in real time with someone who is genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
Social media makes it possible for brands – and their proxies like me – to connect with members of their target audience directly and instantaneously, building strong, mutually beneficial relationships that have the potential to last indefinitely.
Of course, to traditionalists, luddites, skeptics and naysayers, social media is like the proverbial uninvited dinner guest who never leaves.
They can blame it on technology. They can blame it on millennials. They can blame it on whatever and whomever. But like it or not, social media in some way, shape or form is here to stay.
Social media is a disruptive, revolutionary change in how customers and prospects are courted, one that marketers, advertisers, publishers and PR people ignore at their own peril.
Yet there are still a surprising number of holdouts, people who are desperately clinging to old strategies, tactics and channels like life buoys on an open sea, afraid they will drown in today’s new marketing waters.
What they’re doing to attract and retain business may work for them today. But chances are that very same business will fade away soon if they don’t adjust to the times.
Twitter. Facebook. Instagram. YouTube. These are not just new marketing channels at the disposal of the corporate world. These are outrageously popular social media properties which our industry shares with the general public. The playing field is level and the competition is fierce, as it is no longer simply paid media we’re talking about, but owned and earned as well.
As the late, great Marshall McLuhan said more than 50 years ago, “The medium is the message.” And today, given the ubiquity of social media, never mind the mass appeal of television and radio, those words still ring true, perhaps more than ever.
Social media is the message of the millennium so far. It has changed everything about how we communicate with relatives and friends, fans and followers, customers and colleagues, even complete strangers. It has changed the world as we once knew it.
Yet many brands, B2B and B2C alike, are still fiddling and diddling when it comes to social media, or even scarier, aren’t using it at all. Thinking the jury’s still out on whether it’s worth the time or not, they’re missing the opportunity to join the biggest revolution in communication since the printing press.
I hate to break it to you, but this is not the time for hesitation. Seriously, we’re closer than you think to a turning point in social media. You’re either all in with it now or at risk of falling alarmingly far behind the competition.
For brands that are dabbling in it, but not fully on board, consider doubling down on your investment. Don’t rely on only one person for all your social media activities. Have a team at your beck and call. And don’t be just putting anything out there to see what sticks. Think strategy, not tactics. Create content that puts not just your products and services, but your people in a positive light. Keep it real. Be yourselves. Make a commitment to the long haul, but make sure you’re on the grid every single day, not just every once in a while. If you’re out of sight, you’re out of mind. If you’re out of mind, well, you could be out of business.
For brands that haven’t even begun to establish themselves on social media, you have no time to lose. Learn from the activities of your customers and competitors who have beaten you to the punch in setting up shop there. Hang your own shingle on all the major channels today. Chop-chop. Build your audience. Announce your presence. Publish. Broadcast. Post. Tweet. Engage. Take whatever steps are necessary now to connect with your constituents online and convert them into believers in everything you have to share before it’s too late.
Note: The original version of this post, “Social Media: A Revolutionary Change That is Impossible to Ignore,” was published on ClickZ on November 15, 2015 here.
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