Yesterday, June 15, 2011, AdAge.
com's, Antony Young, published a viewpoint piece called 'Social Media Is a Venue, Not a Strategy'.
As the title of the piece suggests, Young's major argument is that social media should not be thought of as something to strategise but rather as a series of communications channels through which to engage consumers, list promotions, and spread brand awareness.
Young touches on social media best practice as well as what SM influencers are doing that makes them so strong.
After all there are proper ways to use these tools and channels- but then wouldn't that suggest the need for a strategy? Something that tech critics and commentators must bear in mind is that those Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts that require a strategy are owned by corporations.
They may be managed by a few different people and if guidelines including company tone, language, promotions and campaigns with real end goals aren't established, the marketing channel won't be as effective as it has the potential to be.
I think that a lot of the confusion surrounding this subject lies in the fact that most of these platforms were designed for, and initially used by, individual people.
I, for instance, have more friends on my personal Facebook account than the company I work for has on theirs, and I don't require a strategy.
But of course, the way that an individual chooses to behave on or offline is completely up to them.
But when acting as the voice of a brand bigger than themselves, things have to be thought through in a bit more detail.
There has been some amount of debate surrounding the role of social media specialists in general.
A lot of companies have, without fully understanding what they're investing in, opened up a social media division of their brand and hired deemed experts to run it expecting significant ROI.
As a result digital experts with as little as a few years experience working in social media are being hired to do very senior jobs on quite senior salaries.
For some, this makes perfect sense.
After all, social media marketing can make a huge difference to a brand and if there is someone who can guide and direct those efforts it is well worth it for the brand to invest in them.
But not unlike the idea that social media doesn't require strategy, a lot of sceptics believe that social media efforts can be handled by an intern and don't require a 'guru' to write tweets or post links on Facebook.
Again, social media is a marketing channel and marketing requires research, insight and planning.
It's not something that big companies are willing to just chance.
How is a summer intern supposed to know how and where the company's target market communicates? How are they supposed to know how to launch, publicise and manage a campaign? They aren't and they won't.
In conclusion, I have to say that I don't agree with this scepticism.
A brand wouldn't chance a television ad, they wouldn't ask an intern to design a billboard or plan an event, so why is the assumption that anyone can just register a profile on social media platforms and blurt out whatever they deem relevant?
com's, Antony Young, published a viewpoint piece called 'Social Media Is a Venue, Not a Strategy'.
As the title of the piece suggests, Young's major argument is that social media should not be thought of as something to strategise but rather as a series of communications channels through which to engage consumers, list promotions, and spread brand awareness.
Young touches on social media best practice as well as what SM influencers are doing that makes them so strong.
After all there are proper ways to use these tools and channels- but then wouldn't that suggest the need for a strategy? Something that tech critics and commentators must bear in mind is that those Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts that require a strategy are owned by corporations.
They may be managed by a few different people and if guidelines including company tone, language, promotions and campaigns with real end goals aren't established, the marketing channel won't be as effective as it has the potential to be.
I think that a lot of the confusion surrounding this subject lies in the fact that most of these platforms were designed for, and initially used by, individual people.
I, for instance, have more friends on my personal Facebook account than the company I work for has on theirs, and I don't require a strategy.
But of course, the way that an individual chooses to behave on or offline is completely up to them.
But when acting as the voice of a brand bigger than themselves, things have to be thought through in a bit more detail.
There has been some amount of debate surrounding the role of social media specialists in general.
A lot of companies have, without fully understanding what they're investing in, opened up a social media division of their brand and hired deemed experts to run it expecting significant ROI.
As a result digital experts with as little as a few years experience working in social media are being hired to do very senior jobs on quite senior salaries.
For some, this makes perfect sense.
After all, social media marketing can make a huge difference to a brand and if there is someone who can guide and direct those efforts it is well worth it for the brand to invest in them.
But not unlike the idea that social media doesn't require strategy, a lot of sceptics believe that social media efforts can be handled by an intern and don't require a 'guru' to write tweets or post links on Facebook.
Again, social media is a marketing channel and marketing requires research, insight and planning.
It's not something that big companies are willing to just chance.
How is a summer intern supposed to know how and where the company's target market communicates? How are they supposed to know how to launch, publicise and manage a campaign? They aren't and they won't.
In conclusion, I have to say that I don't agree with this scepticism.
A brand wouldn't chance a television ad, they wouldn't ask an intern to design a billboard or plan an event, so why is the assumption that anyone can just register a profile on social media platforms and blurt out whatever they deem relevant?