PJA Blog: The Complex Brand

Over the past week, both Mike and Hugh have raised their collective eyebrows at the practical applications of social media - mostly from a perspective of limited time. Even as one of the agency’s experts on social media, I’ve got to say I agree with them - to a point.

Mike’s takeaway (that social media is simply another marketing channel) is dead on. With so much hype in the blogo-pod-RSS-wiki-sphere, it’s easy to lose sight that this is simply another tool in the marketer’s arsenal. And Hugh’s point (that most of us are too busy to fully engage in the Web 2.0 phenomenon) is also very accurate. But there’s a difference between surfing a social network like MySpace and using a social networking site for practical and business-related purposes, like del.icio.us or LinkedIn.

But I’ve got to say, I’m still stymied by those who hype Second Life, the 3-D animated world in which you inhabit an avatar and interact with other avatars. As I said to colleagues when we dipped our toes in, “Second Life? I’m still trying to get a first life!” It seems that one of the for-profit parody sites agrees: Forget Second Life. Get a First Life.

And the derision doesn’t end at our agency. Social media die-hard and head of the Edelman Me2Revolution Steve Rubel has even recently argued that social media is dead. His theory is that now that big media is beginning to participate, social media is no longer the realm of the masses. Karl Long takes the position that as long as the masses still have some say in user-generated / social media spheres, it will survive. And Dave Armano agrees, citing the distinct lines between mainstream media and social media and predicts that social media will gain more mainstream credibility.

This can be seen in the corporate realm, as more businesses are entering the social media game. According to a recent University of Massachusetts Center for Marketing Research study, the hype is real: 19% of the fastest growing companies are participating in social media overall. Broken down, it looks like this:

• 33% message or bulletin boards
• 27% social networking
• 24% online video
• 19% blogging
• 17% wikis
• 11% podcasting

So no, we don’t all have time to devote to these additional channels. But someone does. And every good marketer knows that you should be in as many places as possible to address the various means of consumption available to audiences today.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 11:23 pm and is filed under Marketing, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.