Every marketer’s dream is to have the brand, product, service, or experience they are marketing simply take off in viral fashion and soar to altitudes they never imagined. When you are a “with it” brand, all you have to do is crowd control. I’ll use the below photo of The Apple Store in North Park Center in Dallas, TX as an example. Apple makes cool products and people flock to their stores. Look at the crowd of people and notice that there are NO promotional signs in the windows.
When you aren’t “in the groove”, your marketing efforts have to resort to promotion and attempts to create excitement. My next picture was taken two minutes later at The Dell Store (which btw you can’t find in Google so we linked to some pre-opening news article) that is a two minute walk from The Apple Store in the same mall. Notice the “financial promotions” and “discounts” they’ve posted to lure people in. Also notice the empty store! (and the employee coming out from the background came out and yelled at me for taking a picture and threatened to call security. . .I can see why people aren’t hanging out!)
We can’t all be Apple in our marketing efforts but it is possible to create buzz out of the good that we have in our brand, products, or services and increase overall traffic without having to market to one potential customer at a time. If you want to do that online, the key is integrating with Social Networks! And yes, digital marketing (online) needs to be a part of your strategy no matter what you are marketing!
Social Media is a Web 2.0 concept that is built upon core themes of the new Internet. These include sharing, collaboration, user centric technology, and interest based content. On paper, think about yourself and how many networks with which you associate yourself. Your high school, high school graduating class, college, college graduating class, the sports you like, the type of pet you have, your place of work, your industry, your hobbies, etc. Now take that to every human in the world by Internet services that facilitate sharing and collaboration around interests and you have power!
The following graphic referenced from Wikipedia is a great example of the vastness of the topic of Web 2.0:
This blog was created to explore the ever evolving concepts related to Social Media and apply facts, opinions, and general thinking as to how marketers should leverage them. We will do everything from define and review the sites and services available to marketers to talk strategy and provide real world examples.
I invite you to read, participate, contribute, and just flat out enjoy this blog dedicated to social media marketing.
Derick Schaefer
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.