• by Joe Marchese , January 12, 2010

Your brand message doesn't know what Twitter is. Your brand message doesn't know what Facebook is, either. But that shouldn't stop you from figuring out how to use Twitter, Facebook and many other social media tools to spread your brand message, because, when it comes down to it, your brand message has no idea what television, radio and print are, either.

How many people would you like the opportunity to deliver your message to, at what level of engagement? I don't mean to use "engagement" as a buzz term in social media (although I do believe very strongly it will provide a currency going forward for digital media), but you have to admit there is clearly a difference in the way people can and will experience your brand message on a billboard along the freeway vs. during the Super Bowl, vs. in a movie theater, vs. on their computer, vs. on their phone (hat tip, Marshall McLuhan).

Each has its own advantages and disadvantages in what the creative can do to engage a consumer with the brand message, but deciding the "what" of the message needs to happen before the "how" of delivery. Try taking out all medium-specific metrics to better evaluate which media channels work best, because it's very difficult, if not impossible, to compare the metrics from one medium to another. This tactic can even help agencies and clients have better conversations around what will define marketing success.

In the end, a huge upside will be demystifying the role social media can/should play in your marketing mix. It starts to become clear that your marketing goals using social media tools are exactly the same as they have always been using other media. Either social media can or cannot help you achieve higher-level goals, given the resources and expertise at your disposal.

Almost every message can work in almost every medium. The question you have to ask is, if you can deliver creative experiences that take full advantage of a given medium's properties (television vs. outdoor vs. digital), where will you see the best results as a function of both reach and quality? There have been a number of marketing efforts in social media that didn't make sense for the medium, not because the brand didn't belong in social media, but because the creative didn't take advantage of the medium. This returns a poor ROI for the marketer, by any metrics.

Your message has no idea what Facebook is, but your consumers sure do.