Traditional and social media marketing are not the same but that doesn’t mean that they are in a competition. Classical marketing and channels are at times viewed as inflexible due to their long production times. Mediums such as television require the purchase of air time, the development of advertising, airing, and only then can results be measured. Social media on the other hand is the new and fresh thing, it is like the new cool kid on the block. There have been numerous creative social media campaigns that have bucked the traditional advertising trend. The reveal of the 2011 Ford Explorer is a common example of a successful social media campaign. The application of social media is not limited to just advertising campaigns but can be extended to customer support like Nike did. Nike has its @Nike Twitter handle as well as @NikeSupport handle for all product questions and needs.

  

Let’s jump of the “praise social media” soap box for a bit though. People today easily go from the online to offline world at any given time, especially with the spread of mobile enabled devices. The blend of traditional marketing and social media gives your greater control over your message than ever before. Traditional marketing activities still work, direct mail is incredibly successful for many types of businesses.

A perceived advantage of social media is that it is available for everybody, everywhere and it not the same for traditional channels (TV, print, OOH). Advertising for traditional channels is pre-planned based on market research, target audiences are identified, localized, and then advertised to. This is very true, but social media campaigns should be executed the same way. 

Running a social media campaign is an investment of money and time. The internet is available everywhere and anyone can access your content. This is great if you are an international conglomerate like Coka-Cola, not so great if you are a local boutique. A localized business will carefully analyze its consumers and identify current audience as well as potential target audiences and then and try to create content for them. Google AdWords has an intimidating amount of data and metrics from which someone can choose to advertise to. The great advantage of social media is the ability to receive feedback in the real time. This feedback and abundance of data gives the ability to adjust online advertising on the go. Don’t throw money away on advertising to anyone who will look at your content, put your content at the feet of those who want to see it.

The second common concept is that social media has the advantage of being available all the time, and it is, to the consumer. Social media and traditional support channels are very similar, they depend on the availability of the person. To be able to respond to consumer request someone has to be available 24/7 on a phone line just like on a Twitter handle. The upper hand that social media has is the ability for consumers to engage at any time and for the company to respond during business hours. This is also a great detractor since issues can spiral out of control much faster in an online environment than over traditional mediums.  Just take a look at a few examples of social media gone bad for companies.

Social media and traditional channels are moving closer and closer together every day. For example, is Netflix a social media enable channel or a traditional channel? On one hand it is a TV channel, an online Blockbuster of sorts. On the other hand I can leave ratings, reviews, and connect with friends to see what they are watching. Amazon is a giant online retailer that extensively uses traditional media to advertise. There are numerous examples of online and traditional channels crossing paths.

Online social enabled and traditional advertising is closer than ever, and is moving closer and closer. The only thing that separates traditional marketing and social media marketing is traditional thinking. There is traditional thinking on both sides, with social media evangelists ignoringtraditional media just as much.  Don’t deride anything that you can use. Print a flyer inviting people to your Facebook page, put a YouTube video up inviting people to read your magazine. Mix and match what you have available and synchronize it together for some awesome results.