In last week's column, I discussed a challenge that had been laid down before me, to pit
social media
against AdWords in a battle to the death. Commenter Michael Olson made the following astute observation: "I see SEM and social media as complementary strategies, and think organizations can have
the most success by employing both in concert."
Complementary, indeed. In fact, the more holistic you can make your marketing efforts -- obviously, without spreading them too thin -- the
better off you'll be. We all remember that old saying about advertising, that it takes 12 exposures to result in action; well, it still takes multiple exposures. Even with word of mouth, we often have
to hear a message from multiple sources before we decide to try or buy. But with each successive exposure, our interest grows, until finally even the most hard-core laggard among us will give in and
create a Twitter account or virtual farm.
This past week, I experienced an incredible phenomenon with a different customer, this one a values-based virtual world for children whose
marketing is conducted entirely through social media. With a solid membership that had grown through word of mouth and a core of passionate, early-adopter evangelists, the company caught the attention
of national television in New Zealand (where I'm based) -- and memberships tripled within a week.
A PR person might point to this with glee: "Old fashioned media relations FTW!" And, sure,
that's the reductionist view. The systems view, however, is that without the social media, there would be no story for traditional media to sink its teeth into. Further, without social media
-- and its accompanying facilitation of long-term customer engagement and relationships -- there would be no chance of turning those traditional media fly-by-nighters into a new wave of passionate
evangelists.
My friend Richard Cardran is one of those people whose insights are like a mini-MBA every few minutes. Twitter's fine, says Richard, as is Facebook, YouTube, and all the rest
of them. Where they really start to get exciting, though, is where you interconnect everything, where you start to leverage the network effects made possible by having access to so many different
channels for relatively little cost.
This is a concept I hammer again and again with my social media clients. Forget about just trying to drive traffic to the destination site. We need to
reframe our definition of success, so that instead of a destination site we have an online brand ecosystem, and wherever a customer or potential customer comes into contact with our brand, they're
treated to the totality of the brand experience.
And just as the social media foundation paved the way for the traditional media coverage, and just as the results of the traditional media
coverage were then embraced and supported by the social media infrastructure, search is supported by all your other marketing activities.
The last click is not the only click. It's
often not the first click. It's the culmination of whatever brand impressions your customer has received all down the funnel. If you can tie social, traditional, SEO and SEM together, I'm willing to
bet your results will outperform the same dollars thrown into just one of those channels.
What has your experience been implementing integrated, holistic marketing campaigns? Have you
struggled with a dilution of resources or have you witnessed the power of network effects? Let me know, here or @kcolbin!