Marketing Lessons from the World’s Most Illusive

Whether you like it or not, social media is increasingly becoming the choice of channel for breaking news. There will always be sceptics - those who don’t use it, those that don’t trust it and those that don’t understand it. In fact, in February 2010 a study found that some 18% of companies weren’t using social media. This was up 9% from 2009, and a further 13% said social media was unimportant. Even with those that have embraced social media it is largely considered “un-strategic” and often frowned upon by traditional marketers.

So here’s the lesson, if the White House uses Social Media to get the message out about the execution of Bin Laden, then it’s pretty obvious that social media is one of the first places you should be looking to get your message out. The image of the President, Vice President and members of the national security team in the Situation Room of the White House on 1 May receiving an update on the mission is one that was beamed across the world, made the front page of the National Press and will no doubt be shown to generations of the future. And where was it first published? On Flickr, a social media site.

Not only this but it was Twitter that was responsible for the breaking of the news by an aide to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld albeit unknowingly by an IT consultant living in Pakistan annoyed by the early morning chorus of four stealth helicopters ‘creeping’ into the area! After the raid, Sohaib Athar (34) Tweeted ““Uh oh, now I’m the guy who live-blogged the Osama raid without knowing it.” Subsequently, by the end of the day, Athar (@ReallyVirtual) had over 33,000 followers on Twitter.

But after this, what’s next? Twitter is a great place to vent your feelings and find out the latest headlines, but what happens after that? 140 characters is hardly the medium for detailed, accurate journalism. You can find out what’s going on, but where do you go to get the ‘real’ news? More often than not, back to traditional media where you can separate fact from fiction, and gain perspective.
So, social media and traditional media should be seen as complementary, rather than a replacement for each other.

In the same way, when you’re looking at new innovative ways to drive response from your target audience, you should be thinking integration. The increase in the importance of social media has crept into the advertising spotlight. It is now on the agenda of many large advertisers with many employing a specific body to deal with advertising across the social media spectrum. It has become an important part of an integrated marketing campaign – it allows the advertiser to accurately target their demographic whilst using press as getting their message to the masses. Hence, social media can be used to enhance the effectiveness of a traditional approach whilst not losing sight of your core strengths and possibilities.

What people need to recognise, as the White House already has, is that social media is here to stay … and that goes for the cynic on the other side of your meeting room table as well!