Social Media as a complement to traditional marketing
Social media is sometimes touted as a replacement of traditional media. Some social media strategists even say that traditional media is dead and that traditional marketing is going the same route. I disagree with both assertions and feel that if anything discounting traditional media and marketing is foolish. Social media is here to stay but traditional media and marketing are also still viable parts of a business strategy and likely will continue to be.
What needs to be realized is that social media is a complement to traditional media and marketing. Social media enables businesses to create closer relationships with consumers, while allowing those same consumers to research businesses, but part of that research inevitably will deal with how the business also shows up in traditional media and marketing. To discard that piece of the equation would be to ignore the effect it has on the research people do. It’d also ignores older generations who still rely on traditional media to get their information.
Traditional media is adapting to social media, but social media also needs to adapt to traditional media. This means that social media users need to recognize when using using traditional media can be useful as part of their marketing strategy. While Yellow Pages will probably not be a viable marketing method anymore, sending a greeting card can still be just as powerful as having a twitter presence, and in some ways moreso, because it’s much more tangible.
Social media allows us to participate in the conversation, share ideas, and otherwise educate and inform each other while strengthening relationships. At the same time, it can’t replace in person networking or traditional marketing. Social media instead increases the frequency of connection you make with people, so that you can stay visible and build stronger relationships with them. So it has it’s place, but it’s only one tool among many
