Why Social Media Marketing Makes Sense in 2009

We've spent a lot of time the last few weeks meeting with our clients and others in the industry. While traditional marketing and communication programs may be facing cuts in most organizations, we hear time and time again that the budget for online marketing and more specifically, social media marketing, is increasing in 2009. Why? Here are some of the top reasons we're hearing:

1. It's how consumers and the media want to be reached. In some cases, it's the only way to reach them. I like to start presentations by asking for a show of hands on how many audience members use TiVo to skip commercials, listen to commercial-free satellite radio, are on do-not-call lists and use spam filters on their email. By the end of that question every hand is up. Then I ask how many people Google for product information, read reviews and ratings online or rely on online expert to help make a buying decision. Again, every hand is soon up.

A year ago many of our clients would come up to me afterwords and say "sure that's true for this crowd, but my company sells to (IT administrators, surgeons, working moms, baby boomers, C-Level executives) and they still prefer traditional media." I would argue the point and in a few searches would show just where this particular audience did gather online. About three months ago, I stopped getting this question. Marketers have stopped questioning if their audience is using social networks, rather, they are asking how to implement a social media strategy.

2. Marketers can directly tap into the "filter-free" version of what their audience is thinking. Let's say I wanted to find out what married women, who are college graduates, living in Columbus, with children are talking about. Yes, I can do focus groups and phone surveys. After a lot of time and money and analysis, I will end up with some data and cross my fingers that respondents are being truthful. Or I can take three minutes and do this:

http://browseusers.myspace.com/Browse/browse.aspx?MyToken=633648690651434678

(hit the update link at the bottom of the screen). There. 2500 members of your target audience, talking openly, freely, honesty and openly, 24 hours a day.

3. It's cost effective. If I were to write a radio spot, hire voice talent, pay for editing and place the media buy I've just spent a lot of money. When I measure the cost per impression it probably gets pretty pricey. When I get down to cost per action, the price tag gets even bigger. Now suppose I write a clever little ditty, pay a talented band for a day's time to record it, and then distribute it via a link on Twitter. Now suppose I get 300 sites linking to this song in about a week. And record site traffic. And a mail box full of new leads, talented job candidates looking for a cool place to work and traditional agencies looking to partner. Cost per thousand impressions? About one dollar and dropping.

We never recommend dropping traditional and broadcast media. In fact, the best campaigns integrate multi-channel marketing. Direct mail programs drive search. Radio spots can direct consumers to a microsite. A corporate MySpace page can feature a made-for-broadcast commercial. My prediction is that in 2010 we won't be talking about "online" and "traditional" marketing, advertising and public relations. We'll be looking at our audience, our goals and our messaging and then select the right channels, without regards to labels.

How about you? Shifting 2009 budget and resources from broadcast to online or social media?

Comments

[dawn]

For four years I managed the web site for ePregnancy magazine, then a national newsstand magazine. Part of my job was monitoring our huge forums and we pulled a lot of our editorial ideas from there since if women online were talking about, it was a fair bet our readers were interested in it. What I found then is that what's being talked about on the internet is going to be a big deal later on down the line in real life. I mean, we were gabbing on about carrying our babies in slings on my online forums way before Motrin ever heard of a baby carrier.

I used to encourage our ad people to spend time on the forums to help their advertisers find out how they should pitch their stuff and sometimes they even took my advice (this was in 2002 -- like the olden days)! And when they did, they always got great info. It's a living focus group all the time online.

[Bill Balderaz]

Thanks Dawn. It is amazing what we marketers can learn from listening. Here is a tool we developed, specific to Webbed Marketing, to help us track what people are "buzzing" about online. We use this data before presentations, in pitching and in helping our clients find an angle that people care about.

http://www.webbedmarketing.com/mostpopularsearches.html