Social Media Is NOT The Answer

A guest blog from Keith Gallant, a social media guy.

Justin Bieber is not famous because of social media (yes, we hate that we’re referencing Justin Bieber too, but stay with us here). Justin Bieber is famous because he’s talented and has tremendous appeal to his target audience. So much appeal, that he was destined to have a successful career as a pop music performer. The reach of social media sped the process of fame immensely, just as television (a more traditional broadcast medium) was integral in catapulting the careers of Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake – both of whom were featured as teenage heartthrobs by Disney.

The point is that social media is incredibly powerful when it’s combined with compelling content. Television, radio, print publications and direct mail campaigns are still efficient modes of communication, despite the growing popularity of social media networks. Social media is a gun, an impotent weapon without the bullets, motive and human operation that are social media marketing strategy and content. Everyone is talking about social media, but we should all be talking about content. Content, content, content!

How wonderfully powerful it is to know that we can reach people with our messages faster than ever…but what have we to say? What have we to offer? This is the job of a social media marketing team. If social media itself were “the answer,” a team would not be needed. Companies could hire a social media expert to push their content downstream, publish here…with RSS feeds allowing it to appear here and here. Voila! Mission accomplished! But, the Internet is so vast, merely placing content in many places accomplishes nothing by itself. Sophisticated programming that speeds content placement is not fast enough to keep up with the rate of Internet expansion.

That’s why computer programmers are not the people to be given the job of creating and operating social media MARKETING campaigns. It’s also why the most effective marketing campaigns are developed with meaningful strategy and high quality content. What’s great about communicating via social media is that if the content is strong enough, we can find others to “adopt the cause” – claiming it as their property via affinity and helping to show it off. A handful of years ago, as YouTube burst onto the scene, viral marketing campaigns were being pitched everywhere. For every successful video that was sent to you from your dad or work colleague, imagine how many died in infancy.

Social media allows us more opportunities than ever to reach people, but it has also exponentially accelerated the rate that content is published, creating a noisier, more competitive landscape and making it harder for any piece of content to gain attention. That’s why social media is not the answer. However, for agencies that create KILLER content, social media is their new 6 foot 7 inch, 265 pound best friend.