Social Media – The New ‘Wild West’ of Marketing?

This somewhat provocative question arose last week as I prepared to address an event hosted by the Yorkshire PM Forum with the aim of giving timely and informed advice to professional services marketers about how to profit from PR.

Sharing centre stage with seasoned commentator Greg Wright, deputy business editor of the Yorkshire Post, proved an interesting experience.  He was able to provide all sorts of practical advice from the usual pleas not to send long-winded, technical or irrelevant news releases, to avoiding the least convenient times to ring him (not around 11am or 3pm when the news meetings are held) and the easiest way of irritating a journalist – clogging up his inbox with oversized photos (be warned – apparently, the press, like elephants, never forget…)

My role was to give an overview of the value of PR and social media to professional services firms, and to offer some insight into the way the media is changing.  A somewhat daunting task when addressing an audience of switched on marketers.

Thinking about the key changes in the media, there are, of course, new faces and publications, but the major development has to be the meteoric rise of social media.  I have been staggered by the proliferation of social media ‘experts’ over the past few months offering their often very expensive services and ‘must-have’ seminars (take a look at a cracking skit that is a viral hit on YouTube called The Social Media Guru -  very well observed, if a little rich in its language, I am certain these self styled ‘gurus’ are breeding rapidly in the serviced offices of the UK).  I do worry that professionals are being panicked into tweeting, linking in and blogging without really thinking it through.  As with all marketing, a clear strategy must be the starting point.

Marketers are under pressure to exploit social media and there is no doubt that it has a useful part to play, particularly in monitoring brands and engaging with customers.   What’s more, some networks such as LinkedIn are extremely useful for all sorts of tasks, from finding suppliers to identifying potential job candidates.  However, it is becoming increasingly clear that whilst professional services firms need to embrace the world of social media, they must keep this tool in perspective and ensure that they use the proportionate resources to implement an SM strategy that suits their business. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am a strong exponent of social media (we recently undertook a very successful campaign to launch a new bargain fashion website TheFashionPixie.com – it was immediately picked up by Google and filled the first page of listings on the day it launched which would not have happened without SM).  However, I am trying to issue a word of caution amidst the current SM hysteria.  As the latest panacea, I fear social media could become the new wild west of marketing in much the same way as web design was ten years ago when clients could be charged five grand for a ten page brochure site designed by a 19 year old student in a weekend!  Finding the right social media partner, and avoiding the ones that cloak the common sense of social media in jargon and hype, isn’t easy, but there are some out there. 

Judging by the reception my comments received and the discussions that followed, it was a bit of an ‘emperor’s new clothes’ moment.  Everyone (particularly in marketing) feels they should be fully conversant with this growing phenomenon , and they don’t want to admit if they can’t actually identify any mind-blowing benefits it would give to their own particular business.   My advice is to look beyond the smoke and mirrors and trust your judgement!