Social media is here to stay.  Social media is a fad.  Which is true?  I say both.

I wrote last week that digital marketing wasn't a piece of the marketing pie, it was a key ingredient in making the pie.  Well, social media is a key ingredient in leveraging digital marketing.  It is called out today as being a separate phenomenon.  Social media is being used as a buzzword. It is hot.  It is a fad.  I think the fad is calling it out as separate from digital marketing.  The long term reality is that social media is here to stay, and it should be embedded in the fabric of the digital marketing blanket, not a throw set on top.  

The ability to reach and engage with customers has changed and will continue to change as a result of digital connectivity - convergence, communities and content will evolve, not disappear.  There are two general observations on this front which have wide ranging implications for business today.

First, there are offline and online sales/marketing campaigns that might appropriately be kept independent of the other by virtue of the business objectives at hand.  However, the first assumption should be that they will be coordinated, and the exception are those times when the message is just better in the Wall Street Journal.  Most PR, marcomms, sales or branding campaigns simply benefit from a coordinated approach, with varying mixes.  And, as social media is part of the fabric of online, unless there are reasons not to include the social elements, they should be a component of all campaigns.  Any determination not to include social elements should be made on an enlightened basis, however, hand in hand with those who bring that expertise to the table, not due to a lack of understanding.

This gets to my second point.  Effective digital marketing requires enterprise wide change.  This sounds like a bold statement, but it really isn't a new one.  Traditional media can cut across multiple business units, including PR, marcomms, branding and sales.  Digital marketing 'bridges' these, as well as other departments such as legal, IT, CRM, product development and research and development.  It is just a different way to do business and interact with customers.  Done correctly, there is tremendous value to be realized through lower acquisition and customer service costs, higher customer service ratings, lower R&D costs, and so on.

Of course, there are legal elements related to most business units, but digital media will keep lawyers busy for a while developing new policies, procedures and precedents.  IT needs to ensure the right equipment, software and support are available, particularly if social media is being used by staff in addition to corporate initiatives.  Customer service through chat or Twitter really works to cut costs, both in head count and in addressing issues before they become crises or risks to your brand.  R&D can benefit from lower costs through crowd sourcing, and product development can benefit the same way through community evaluations.  This is very high level, and the tools for each vary, but they all exist today in the digital domain.

At New Marketing Labs see the challenges faced by large enterprises, both B2B and B2C, but we also have measured partner success gleaned from constructing and leveraging the digital bridge.  Businesses can lead or follow, but the land grab enabled by digital marketing is in the form of developing real relationships with customers.  Once these relationships are built, it will be very difficult for competing others to break the bonds.

What is your take on social media helping to build the digital bridge between different departments?  Have you seen it within your company?  If so, what were the results of it?

Photo by: WildVanilla

Forrester Research recently published a post about defining Paid, Owned and Earned Media and helping to categorize the types of media communicators utilize today.


Paid Media is the old school traditional advertising / sponsorship model for print, broadcast, radio or online.  This model of media is still driving most marketing budgets & programs today.

Owned Media is content and material created and produced by a Company or organization where they drive and control the messaging and distribution channels - be it videos, ebooks, case studies, customer testimonials, podcasts to be promoted through blogs, website, newsletter or branded social networks.

Earned Media used to be recognized as that third bucket dominated by traditional public relations & perhaps analyst relations programs.   The past few years it has expanded to encompass User Generated Content, Word of Mouth and the ever-misunderstood Viral Marketing Programs.

So, this begs the question of where do you focus on producing content that puts the heart, interests and needs of your customer first and you earn you way in?

2010 may be the year of earned media and customer attention where reviews, mentions of your brand with linkbacks and online conversations drive greater SEO and more cost effective sales, channels leads and drives cross-company collaboration.  But there is much more that can be added to Paid and Owned media to greatly expand the value of the committed marketing and communications funds and channel building to spur an ever dramatic increase in Earned Media.    We're seeing it more and more often - major ad buys are showcasing where to find them online.  Better yet, we're seeing ad buys pointing customer attention to where they can join the conversation with them - be it a website, Facebook or Twitter.

Owned media is rapidly moving beyond the static brochure-ware on the web.  Instead it is being viewed and created as a catalyst and fuel for conversation and yes, ultimately - Engagement.  Here in lies the greatest untapped communications, sales and business growth opportunities.   Content has always been King but it's important to remember that it became King for it fueled what was essentially more important - Engagement.

So as we move into 2010 find more ways to not only increase your earned media content but to also instill an active listening, monitoring, content producing, community building and sharing strategy that supports the needs of your marketing, industry and customers.  Execute this strategy properly and you will instill excitement, interest, and conversations.  That level of engagement when executed upon effectively will not only help grow your business but accelerate your earned media effectiveness 10 fold - within the next year.

What's your take on Paid, Owned and Earned Media?  Do you agree that 2010 will be the year of earned media through engagement?

On a plane ride the other day, I started feverishly writing notes about what comes next for social media and its place in business communications. The companies who work with us buy into the belief that we're not only using tools like blogging, Twitter, Facebook, video and more for marketing, but that we're intending to take it deeper. We feel that these tools are as important to a company as the phone on your desk, or email. We see social software as the new nervous system and the new dialtone of an organization. With that in mind, here's what we're working on with clients in that regard, in the form of some questions.

How Do We Share? - We work through the various ways that social tools allow information to flow, internally and externally. We do this from a few perspectives: make the content WORTH sharing is first, and then make the technology easy to share is second. For instance, when we work with people on their live events, we build packages of tools together that will spread the video, the photos, the tweets, and all the other inspired content, so that their events extend further.

How Do We Develop Relationships That Yield? - We push that a big number isn't important; a number that indicates your loyal community is important. Relationship-building on the web goes beyond a hokey loyalty program tied to % off for purchase. We look for ways to improve community interaction, ways to empower our clients' customers, and other ways for people to feel more connected and valued than in the old models of marketing.  But, that doesn't mean that we don't measure social media efforts because we do.

How Do We Equip Better Interactions? - With so many people interested in how presence management (such as companies using Twitter as a means of connecting with customers and suppliers) changes the game, we're looking for ways to wire that deeper into the organization. Shouldn't your sales team know that your top customer is having a tough time at the office, so today might not be the day to try and collect on the payment due? What happens when hotels and airlines go beyond the customer service and reservations marketing and deeper into quality of service throughout the organization. Can we empower even more in that regard?

As New Marketing Labs moves deeper into 2010, that's what the team is planning on covering. We're extending our relationships with our current client partners, and we're excited to talk with people about what comes next for all these tools and how to integrate them into your marketing and communications efforts. It's your business; it's our passion.

Photo by: alexanderdrachmann