Social: no replacement for traditional media
A warning: converting to new social media may be a mistake.
“Before you move some of your surviving budget into a spiffy new social-media campaign and give up control of your brand to ‘the conversation,’ consider that you might be replacing your old-fashioned, excruciatingly commercial marketing with newfangled irrelevant nonsense,” writes global brand strategist Jonathan Salem Baskin in Advertising Age.
MTL Creative is also among a growing number of experts counseling against too-high expectations for social media.
“As much as we all love social media, it is important to know that even the most well planned campaign can not replace strong customer service, pr or online networking,” it said.
There is evidence for taking their advice.
The Edelman 2010 Trust Barometer found that only 25 percent of people see friends and peers as credible sources of consumer and business information. That is a decline of nearly half since 2008. Other polls also show that people think less of their peers as credible spokespeople.
“Should these findings cause worry for the almost four out of five companies planning to take TV ad money and put it into social?” the site asks.
Conversational media could never be anything more than secondary, anecdotal research on products and services, along with partially reliable color commentary, but that’s an accomplishment when compared to the predictably inane or dishonest content we usually put into ads,” the story says.
For those who want proof, they suggest contrasting a random chat-room conversation about a product with the last assortment of Super Bowl spots.
By David Wilkening
David
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