Using Social Media to compliment your traditional marketing and Customer Experience….

Author: Colin Shaw

Vanessa DiMauro over at The Social Customer recalls a conversation and blog post written by her colleague Jack Greene mulling over whether Social Media can exist alongside traditional forms of marketing. Questions raised from the debate included topics that covered:

•Staffing – Should marketing folks be the executors of social media or should it have its own dedicated skill set?
•Budget – Who owns social media within the organization?
•Measurement – Can social media measurements be isolated or does it need to occur within a larger context of ROI? and,
•Organizational structure – Is social media stand-alone or should it be integrated into the larger value chain in order to be meaningful?

Although this topic appeared to incite quite a vociferous debate, it appears to me to be a bit of a misnomer. Broken down to its simplest form, Social Media can be used to drive engagement (conversation, interaction, etc) with your customers, or to drive traffic (or awareness) to your existing online or offline marketing properties. Therefore, Social Media should be used to compliment your existing ‘traditional’ marketing, and use it as a channel to drive awareness of, and get customers to engage with your customer experience.

What organisations and brands should be more careful about is the perception of your social media activity – is it aligned with the rest of your customer experience? Does your social media activity detract from your traditional marketing route – do they work together as an integrated experience or are they run by completely disparate departments with an unmatched tone of voice?

Do you think social media can exist alongside traditional marketing?

How do you feel this can impact your Customer Experience?

Thanks to Vanessa for the provocation, read the original post here

 

By Colin Shaw | Published: May 18, 2010