Social Media Professionals

“You can’t just launch your Facebook Page and expect people to find it. You have to reach out through traditional and non-opt-in means–networking, advertising, Search Engine Marketing, for example–incentivize them to connect with you and when they arrive, give them what they expect.”  – Me, yesterday and every other time I’ve delivered my Social Media and Your Sales Funnel presentation.

“TV is no longer a broadcast medium so much as it is a mass distribution channel — one that establishes awareness for a larger campaign effort that gives consumers a real role in shaping and communicating the brand essence.” – iMedia’s Jim Nichols, Monday.

Jim and I are saying the same thing in that, anymore, effective marketing involves direct, participatory consumer engagement via the online channels and that effective campaigns are integrated.

We differ in that I don’t think the majority of TV advertisers have caught up to him. Jim and I both like Pepsi. I’m married with kids so I’m not allowed to watch anything Axe does. I only just got turned on to the next level of the Kia hamster thing from reading his article, and it made my day because I dig that campaign with both shovels. Jim’s point is that these brands, and a couple others he ably cites, use the broadcast medium as  a signpost to let me know that if I enjoy the TV spot or like the product it advertises, it might very well be worth my time to become informed or entertained via their social Internet presence.

Nichols details five campaigns he admires. In less time than he spent researching and preparing his multimedia article, Jim could make a list of 500 TV advertisers who are stumbling into the engagement advertising age or burying their heads in the sand and pretending it isn’t happening.

Actually it’s not just advertisers. You can see cable news channels encouraging their viewers to connect with them on Twitter, true, but rare is the instance in which the online channel actually drives the content. Rather, it is used as peripheral filler, a visual letter to the Editor. Multinational companies are at a loss for how to cope with the inherent transparency of modern communication. BP, if you’re listening, you need a new PR agency. You’ve done everything wrong. And you won’t be the last to blow it. This political season, replete with iPads, will generate an unprecedented amount of head shaking.

Back to advertisers. I’ve given Honda a bit of a bad time in this space because their stuff is so…blah. Adidas’s Star Wars spoof gets mixed reviews. But at least they’re dipping their toes in the water. You know Yoo Hoo has no social media presence? None. And that’s tragic. How much fun could you have with Yoo Hoo on Facebook? Two geeks could riff off enough Facebook apps to revive that brand twice before needing refills on their coffee at Village Inn.

Speaking of Village Inn, when you go to http://Facebook.com/VillageInn, do you get something fun, like, I don’t know, maybe a little interactive thing that allows me to make a face with my virtual breakfast, a contest where I get to suggest a new flavor of pancake? No. I get a bar in England.

So I am really rooting for Jim to be correct, but we haven’t yet hit the point where a majority of traditional advertisers have grasped the painfully obvious.

And I suggest you “like” Village Inn on Facebook. Where else can you get this interchange:

STEVEN, July 23, 7:41 AM:  village inn sucks ,we were up dancin lastnight and my m8 was out havin a fag and we had 3 half drunken pints on a table and the glass collector swiped the lot ,i complained to the head bar maid and she said that if pint’s are left un attended for more than 10mins then they get poured away, now i can understand that if the place was mobbed but it was half empty, whats the crack village inn?

THE VILLAGE INN, July 23, 8:51 AM: These things happen Steven, sorry.

Up dancin. My M8. Havin a fag. Glass collector. Swiped the lot. Head bar maid. Poured away. What’s the crack. My circles could use a bloke like Steven. And I’m all for him and his m8 gettin a fresh pint on the house.

Cheerio, chaps. Enjoy your weekend.

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