Don’t Panic: Social Media is Just Another Communications Touchpoint

From Geoff Sheldon, VP, Brand Planning Director, Palio

After reviewing the Marketing Executives Networking Group‘s 2010 Marketing Trends Report, conducted by Anderson Analytics, where “social media” obtained the dubious honor of the buzzword that marketers are most tired of hearing, I started thinking about the anxiety and irrationality that I have observed as marketers and advertisers continue to grapple with the concept of social media.

From personal experience, I have lost count of the number of meetings that I have been involved in whereafter the subject of social media was raised, there was a deathly silence, followed by some uncomfortable conversation, before the subject was changed and everyone moved on as if the whole conversation never took place.

Then on the flipside, I have also had the pleasure of being exposed to a number of ill-conceived client requests along the lines of “I don’t care what you do, just get me some of that social media stuff, and quickly!” (These kind of requests typically come out of left field, and seem to driven more of a client’s desire to be seen as cool, cutting edge, or keeping up with the Joneses, rather than being aligned to a particular marketing or communication strategy.)

I guess what has, and continues to surprise me, is the fact that both of these situations are driven by panic; manifested as either fatigue or avoidance or a desire to just do something/anything…

In many ways it is very obvious to see where this panic is coming from. As a new frontier, social media to the uninitiated appears to be overwhelming and uncontrollable (all things that tend to create anxiety), but with a little bit of knowledge and understanding it is easy to put social media into perspective as nothing more than just another communication touchpoint that can be leveraged as part of an integrated marketing plan.

What the advent of social media, and other channels (online/mobile etc.) has necessitated, however, is for marketers and advertisers to up our game in terms of media planning. In today’s media fragmented world, the way consumers are receiving their information is ever changing (social sites are here today and gone tomorrow), which requires us to have a deeper understanding of our consumers’ media consumption and to be a lot more nimble in the way we execute our tactics.

To me, having to stay relevant and one step ahead of our consumers is exciting and one of the main reasons I enjoy this business; it’s certainly not something to panic about.