• by Seana Mulcahy , January 13, 2009

Seems like no matter where you look--from blogs to the trades to headlines laden across business journals and newspapers--the past year has been chock-full-of buzzwords for our beloved digital media industry. At the helm is the most popular label of all, social media. Ah yes it's a nebulous term. Ask 10 people (in or out of the industry) what it means and you are bound to get 10 different answers.

Looking back at this time last year, the industry seemed to have an empty canvas alongside a minimal palette. However, since this time, I'm sure no one would contest that the perceived value of social media has been staggering. In fact, it took many by surprise. Just look at the sheer penetration rates of sites like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube. Or take a step out into a crowd in just about any major city and watch everyone that is attached to a mobile device, be it talking, listening, texting, emailing or using applications.

And through it all we've begun to see who took a leap of faith and built campaigns around environments like blogs, microblogs, social networks, virtual worlds and just about any walled garden out there. We've also begun to see which businesses have chosen the more conservative path of standing pat. In fact, as the value of social media grows more and more irrefutable, it's becoming addictive to watch businesses that demonstrate a complete reluctance to infuse these new marketing possibilities into their deeply ingrained big media practices. The good news is that these cautious practitioners are beginning to see the light. The unfortunate thing is that it took an economic disaster of epic proportions to open their collective eyes.

For traditionalists, especially those heading up the marketing efforts for global brands, the campaign tool kit heading into 2008 was largely comprised of the conventional big ticket items: Print and online display advertising, television and radio commercials, Super Bowl ads and corporate sponsorship of sports arenas. As this aversion to new ideas persevered into the third quarter, the trend made me scratch my head a bit more--especially when I saw the growing number of new, efficiently priced, low-risk options that were gaining increase traction among most consumers. I couldn't help but think, am I missing something?

Then a funny thing happened. The economy imploded and, mired in the first stages of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression, many traditional marketers found themselves at a crossroads. Companies could not bury their head in the sand and simply operate as though nothing had happened, all while their marketing budgets began to get heavily scrutinized.

Take General Motors as an example. GM, one of the largest media buyers in the world, recently announced that it would not be airing any TV advertisements during the 2009 Super Bowl. The reason for the move is obvious--GM was implementing significant companywide cost cutting reductions. Now, with the pressure to produce results on a reduced budget, GM has a choice and it's the same one many of the new media-challenged marketers face today. Either take the lead of a brand like Coke, an early new media adopter that has launched a variety of projects designed to complement its more traditional efforts, or ignore all the social media signage and cling onto a model which, while familiar to all and still effective in many respects, does not engage consumers in the manner to which they have become accustomed.

So now the questions we get from these marketers is the following: "where do I go from here? The answer is simple, "Grow up!" and it appears folks are beginning to listen. Take the RFP (request for proposals) process for example. In recent times, I have seen more and more RFPs with at least one dedicated question related to social media. Compare this to a year ago when the question came up with far less frequency. The question itself tends to revolve around the fact that most brands now want to know how social and emerging media could potentially affect their brands from perception down to the nitty-gritty reality of marketing and media tactics.

My answer to them is, whether you're here for the right or wrong reasons, it's finally time for marketers to embrace the one thing that they have been avoiding, social and emerging media. Evolution plays into all corners of our lives and marketing is no exception. Consumers are spending their time differently. Their lives have become more time starved and often times frenetic. They want what they want when they want it. They have an on-demand mentality that will not go away anytime soon. They are spending an increasingly large amount of their time on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. They are also demonstrating greater willingness to let marketers reach out to them in a number of new channels including their most personal of places, their mobile phone. For those at the crossroads, it's time to move into the "smart media" era.

So what's my advice? Simply put, don't react. Take a step back and see what options are at your disposal. I've mentioned some high-profile options such as Facebook and Twitter but there are many more alternatives. Next, take the time to see what other marketers are doing and if it's working. Thirdly, think about what it is you are hoping to accomplish for your brand and how each platform will affect the way customers, both current and future, interact with it. Are you looking to sell products, enhance your image or maybe even both? Lastly, take a chance! If the 2008 Presidential Election taught us anything, it's that social media gives you an opportunity to motivate and mobilize company evangelists to create something truly unique that can literally change the market landscape.

For many businesses, social media was not on their marketing wish list for 2008 or maybe even 2009. The bottom line is that these companies have been ushered into the social media era whether they like it nor not and now that they are here, they would be well advised to open their minds and see what these new tools can do for their brand. What they might discover is that a campaign within a walled garden might be more effective and efficient today than a 30-second spot during the next Super Bowl. We've entered a new world of accountability my friends. So I'll leave you with this, isn't it about time?