Social Media Mania

By Brett on May 9, 2012 | In Social Media, Branding, Culture | Send feedback »

I remember when all my clients wanted to get a website. This was before they even had their domain registered. I'd ask them why they wanted a website and they'd say something like, "I don't know, but I know we need it and we need it by yesterday." Fortunately for us we don't do creative or web design so that timeline became somebody else's problem.

But then our clients started asking us about advertising online. I reminded them they didn't have a website yet and they said, "Well that is why we need one!" This was back in the day when Industry Standard was the size of the women's fashion magazines and banner ads were getting 10% click-thru rates.

Obviously the need for a website became as routine as getting business cards. Most companies use their website as a place to give information, engage with consumers and in some cases to conduct e-commerce.

Nowadays, all our clients are insisting they get involved with social media. I ask them why. They usually say, "I don't know, but we need to get on Twitter and YouTube!" I ask about The Google (I like to add 'the' in front of the almighty), Facebook, FourSquare, LinkedIn and Pinterest just to see the deer in the headlights look. I love that.

Fortunately we can help right away with social media. We are awesome at recommending how paid advertising in social media integrates with all other media in contributing to achieving specific marketing and business goals. It's still a little bit like the wild west out there, but the accountability and measurement capabilities are so awesome online and in particular with social media. Many of our clients learn more about their target market from online advertising than they do from formal research.

Some of our clients are very advanced and knowledgeable with online advertising and specifically social media. Others have no clue. It's all cool either way. It is our job to stay on top of it all for them in order to educate, inform and recommend. And if they need a handy reference guide, we just send them this little gem that has been flying around the Internet.