Do Your Kids Know More Than You Do About Social Marketing?
Are you lost when it comes to the world of Facebook and Twitter? Do you wonder why your kids are wasting their time posting on these services? In the old days, not so long ago, we made phone calls to our friends when we wanted to set up a time and place to meet face to face, or just to exchange ideas. That was good enough in the days when our network was local; just the people you could get to see within a short car ride.
Within the 10 years or so since the social media revolution has taken place, the world has become smaller and our individual worlds have become larger and more populated. Our world now includes friends in far flung places. If you are a traveler, and you have met new friends on a trip to Europe or Asia, and you want to stay in touch, it is now possible. Young people have naturally gravitated toward this widening network of former high school mates scattered to different colleges around the country, or new friends of those friends. Our circle has exploded into an exponentially larger network.
How does this work for us in business? Business owners and marketers have always known that networking is an extremely powerful method of introducing your goods and services to those who may serve as either end users or referral sources. Direct advertising on social media is only phase one of the possibilities.
When tied in with internet search marketing, the other relatively young technical field, a powerful alliance is created. This article cannot delve too deeply into the technical aspects of Social Marketing and Search Optimization, but suffice it to say that as a combination, it can be an extremely effective alliance. Your network interfaces with your marketing efforts, and the sum is far greater than the parts. You may have developed an effective business network in business school, but it pales in comparison to the possibilities afforded by Social Marketing. Goods and services sold by way of the new networking are not only more effective, they are heading toward being the only viable avenue as paper marketing’s effectiveness wanes.
Speaking of the ineffectiveness of paper marketing, Have you noticed that mobile phones have now become the dominant type of communication device? A new smartphone is activated every couple of seconds. The reason is that you no longer have need to resort to paper media in order to source information, products, services and of course, utilize Facebook, Twitter and all the other hundreds of social and marketing sites that now exist.
Here’s to the kids for paving the way.
