seminar on social media

Social media offers marketers an opportunity to engage in conversation about their brand. So, how did this baby boomer get to know anything about the benefits of social media? Isn't that a young person's game?

Social media offers marketers an opportunity to engage in conversation about their brand. So, how did this baby boomer get to know anything about the benefits of social media? Isn't that a young person's game?

Well, once upon a time, a young woman (that was me), wielded my best marketing and design tools – Pantone markers, letraset – to provide clients with the kind of perfect layouts and marketing messages that assumed people were listening. For the most part, they were. It was a less cynical world. Marketers weren’t competing with the Internet, or YouTube or video on demand or online ratings. Consumers didn’t register for "do not call" lists, use DVRs to tape TV shows so they could “skip” the commercials, or Google clients to see how some of its previous customers felt about their service or product. When we talked to consumers the last thing we wanted was for them to talk back.

Fast forward 25 years, the design and advertising landscape has drastically changed. My markers and paper have long since been retired and replaced with a computer that allows my agency to create marketing materials in less than one twentieth the time. The newspapers of our day are fighting for their lives, the post office is gasping for breath and the youngest members of our population are determined to "opt-in" for marketing.

“Brands are stories, containing a promise to perform, at every possible contact point. These stories are accepted or rejected by consumer audiences based on performance.” –Neal Mendelsohn, Chief Experience Officer at Fourth Wall, LA

I don’t believe social media will ever replace the need for business development people or traditional marketing but in the new economy it definitely needs to be a part of your marketing arsenal.

Traditional branding is a top down approach with companies, both profit and non-profits defining their own brand. The difference today, brands are being defined by conversations, by what people say both good or bad about your firm. Is this how your firm is engaging clients?

At my recent presentation at Pace University on Social Media I was asked, "Why can't people find my website when they search online?" My answer, a bit flippant, was that it would take another three hour class for a decent response about search engine optimization (SEO).