Posts Tagged ‘Social Media Marketing’

Bringing Social Networks Offline and Taking it to the Streets

27
April
2010

Follow that truck! Or should I say: Follow that food truck on Twitter! A look at how food trucks are using social media marketing to create online lead generation for offline purchase and consumption.

Stefanie Berliant
Client Services Manager

While I do not hold Twitter in high regard in my personal life, I do recognize that value it brings to breaking news, connecting people real time, and allowing companies and organizations to participate in conversations and interact with their audience. One niche industry that I think has used Twitter as their only online marketing campaign and performed all of these aforementioned things successfully is with a trend that has recently hit the streets and stomachs of DC: food trucks. I’m not talking about the taco trucks underneath the highway overpass- I am talking about pimped out trucks serving gourmet food at hot dog stand prices. Foodies and fat kids of DC rejoice!!

I realize these food trucks have been around in other major cities and technically broke on the DC scene last year, but I feel that the DC adoption rate for these food trucks has been skyrocketing. Additionally not enough attention has been given to how these food trucks have become so successful through their free social media marketing campaigns via Twitter. I really can no longer say that I don’t use Twitter for my personal life now that it updates me on where I can get delicious, cheap (or even free) food.

These trucks serving up food ranging from pizza to banh min to cupcakes have harnessed the power of the underground revolution through Twitter and other online social networks. Marketing their menus, locations and special promotions on Twitter creates demand in the form of a fun scavenger hunt and allows people to feel “in the know” and part of something unique. These food truck vendors have found a free and engaging way to market their products to their audiences online even though the end goal is to move people offline into the real world. Of course the food doesn’t suck either.

What’s more is that these trucks all have Facebook profiles as well as Foursquare check-ins tagged as a “moving target.” These trucks are promoting their products with flair and adding their personality into their tweets all the meantime getting feedback from customers on new meals to offer or new locations to set up shop…or park their truck. Ultimately this creates a sense of community and builds up a loyal customer base. I must applaud these social media savvy entrepreneurs who want to feed me good food from a ridiculous looking van. Just brilliant! I’ve compiled a list of local DC food trucks for your consumption:

Twitter lists that aggregate food truck tweets:
http://twitter.com/MobileCravings/dc-food-trucks
http://twitter.com/CHOWagons/dc-area-food-trucks

Twitter handles for individual food trucks:
@rebelheroes
@fojolbros
@CurbsideCupcake
@SweetflowMobile
@OnTheFlyDC
@DistrictTaco
@EatSauca
@wheresauca
@DCSlices
@PupatellaPizza
@FLmeetsDC

There is confirmation of a food truck providing the hungry people of DC with lobster rolls (http://redhooklobsterpound.com/). Please excuse me as I wipe my drool from my computer screen.

Facebook: New features let users share as they browse

21
April
2010

Focused on the peer connection, Facebook hopes to continue to grow its social media dominance by further connecting “friends”, allowing them to share web activity and interests outside of the Facebook website.

Keith Vera
Client Services Manager

Looking to move more into competition with Google, Facebook announced today new features that will help Facebook users share their web activity with their contacts, or friends, as they browse the web. Focused on the peer connection, Facebook hopes to continue to grow its social media dominance by further connecting “friends”, allowing them to share web activity and interests outside of the Facebook website.

How it works: Websites can now install a “like” button or even use widgets that lets users share web content with their friends outside of Facebook.com.  Comments and “likes” on content will show up on friend’s Facebook home pages, effectively sharing users browsing history, preferences, and interests (that they choose to share of course) as they move through the web outside of Facebook.com.  Websites with large amounts of content will be able to take this new social browsing standard one step further, and outline within their pages what someone’s peers liked or recommended within a site.

The Washington Post has a interesting new Facebook news feature on the home page that will show the most popular Facebook “shared” articles, and the browsing activity of Facebook friends on the Washington Post site as long as you are logged into Facebook or Facebook Connect.  Here is an image of the Washington Post homepage widget:

Washington Post Facebook Widget

Washington Post Facebook Widget

Here is the expanded view of the feature showing the most popular overall activity as well as Friend activity:

Washington Post Facebook Widget

Washington Post Facebook Widget

You can read a bit more on the announcement from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on the Facebook blog.  Be sure to comment on this post and let us know your thoughts on the new Facebook changes and the impact.

Does social media really impact SEO? YES..it does!

19
April
2010

Some great points to help explain social media’s impact on SEO from Marketing Sherpa’s 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report.

George Assimakopoulos
CEO & Principal Manager

Two months ago, I purchased Marketing Sherpa’s 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report. But after receiving it, I must admit that I’ve procrastinated a bit and have not given it the attention it really deserves. That said, I am so glad that other members of my team didn’t follow my example – and have actually read the benchmark report cover-to-cover.

My social media practice lead (Andrew Bates) recently shared with me some points that he read in the report that resonated well with me. As an online marketing consultant, I am constantly asked if social media truly impacts SEO rankings – or is that a myth. Believe me, I have explained and re-explained to clients how social media is a MUST-have for any SEO engagement. But the following two points from the benchmark report serve as a testament to why:

POINT #1: 69% of marketers using social media score its effectiveness at improving search engine rankings at three or higher on a scale of one-to-five, according to Marketing Sherpa’s 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report

POINT#2: Marketers also are successfully using social media for targeted search goals including:

  • Improving search rankings — 91%
  • Increasing traffic from targeted keywords — 90%
  • Expanding content shown in universal search results — 89%
  • Improving the ROI from search programs — 80%
  • Generating more qualified leads — 78%

The report goes on to include five SEO social media trends to guide an integrated approach:

  • Trend #1. A solid social strategy must come first
  • Trend #2. Search engines are increasingly indexing social content
  • Trend #3. Social media builds inbound links
  • Trend #4. Search and social data complement each other
  • Trend #5. On-site social media is a powerful content generator

In short, Marketing Sherpa’s 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report is a MUST READ for anyone targeting online social media as part any integrated marketing approach. And since I’ve already spent good-money to buy the report, it looks like I’ve just lined-up my reading-homework for this week.

To learn more about this benchmark report – CLICK HERE.

10 Days Later: Nestle’s Social Media Implosion – Why?

29
March
2010

How Facebookers commandeered the brand’s site for their own cause and why social media melees can go so wrong, so fast.

Blake Bowyer (@BlakeBowyer)
Media Program Analyst

Prologue: If you don’t know what transpired on Facebook with NestlĂ©, search “NestlĂ© Facebook” or click HERE.

It’s no secret that social media democratized the Internet’s share of voice – no longer do messages need to be viral to spread the word, they simply require exposure. And now where do the disseminators find the pulpit? Your brand’s Facebook page or @ reply Twitter stream or Yelp reviews. This isn’t a post about how risky social media are, but WHY they there is so much risk and the three inalienable rights in an open-forum era. It all starts with the parable of a candy company …

“… they will be deleted.”

And that’s when the Facebook Wall caved in on NestlĂ© and it was overcome by the chocolatier’s “fans”. As much as a social presence can be a bullhorn for fandom, it makes the jeers of the detractors even louder. While mudslinging factions could be marginalized in the past or framed as extremists and minorities, social media allow these groups to assemble, grow, and reach critical mass. In short, these groups always had the possibility to be more influential, social media just furnished the tools. As I mentioned in a past INSIGHT post, your social audiences are merely gatherers – not “fans or “followers” – until you offer otherwise.

The flare-up on Nestlé’s Facebook page harkens back to slideshow presentation created by a dissatisfied customer spreading the word about a deplorable Doubletree hotel experience. If you’ve never seen the slideshow, it’s a genius – and ultimately effective – example of pre-viral Internet inveighing. But that was way back in 2001, when Web 1.0 was rounding the bend of maturity to decline and audible consumer voices were few and far between online. This PowerPoint missive, while clever, was still a blip on the radar for Doubletree and most viewers were those looking for a laugh, not a hotel room.

But, that was ancient history and now consumers can take their complaints, messages, and hills-to-die-on straight to the fan pages and forums of these brands. This isn’t Hannibal’s forces coming over the Alps on elephants for the element of surprise; this is kamikaze warfare without the risk. Among other things, Nestlé didn’t recognize three inalienable consumer rights of a new media era:

  1. 1) Freedom of speech
  2. 2) Freedom of assembly
  3. 3) The right to petition

These rights existed before social media and prior to companies drafting their own customer bills of rights, but they were never as meaningful – or, more importantly, as possible. Just as Web 2.0 can facilitate the formation of a billion accessible niches, it encourages the assembly of customer coalitions looking to exercise their rights. And, truthfully, that development is a double-edged sword for both sides.

With fans like this, who needs enemies?

With fans like this, who needs enemies?

As consumers, we have reasonable rights for which companies and brands should be held accountable. However, we risk eroding candor and responsiveness by drawing pistols on companies when our trigger finger starts to itch.

As companies, we can benefit from the openness of new media and glean valuable information, augment relationships, and correct mistakes to the benefit of everyone. However, inherent in these tools is public risk and every consumer must at least be respected, if not addressed – never deleted.

“… they will be deleted.”

The Facebook manager at Nestlé fanned the flames with those four words. Everything before them was forgotten and the company was suddenly a tyrant, turning the fight to principle, something all consumers were eager to defend and bringing many more into the fold. This isn’t an era of slideshows existing in a dweeb vacuum, but one that consumers’ rights are realized and a brand must share the microphone or risk having it ripped from its hands by a pirate radio eager to broadcast its faults.

Fractured Attention Span Friday: 10 Social Media Stats To Ponder

19
March
2010

Stats that may or may not blow your mind, but understanding the implications is essential. And the questions they pose that all digital marketers need to answer.

Blake Bowyer (@BlakeBowyer)
Media Program Analyst

1 – In 2009, US marketers spent 13% of online marketing time on social media, the second-largest share of any tactic. Then why is it still so clumsy?

2 - 6/10 consumers said their chances of buying from a company increased when they followed it on Facebook. What value are they getting? Savings? Intimacy? Exposure?

3 – The same above applied for Twitter … at a clip of 8/10! Are users following companies on Twitter just to get deals?

4 – The average number of tweets per hour is around 1.3 million. How quickly are yours running through the feeds?

5 – 72% of marketing executives said they were planning a social media strategy in 2010. How many will actually be strategic?

6 – 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States. Are you a multinational? Regardless, you’re speaking globally.

7 – Number one reason execs use social media is “brand-building”, at 82%. Sounds great, but how many are using different definitions?

8 – Foursquare is nearing 16 million check-ins. When are small businesses going to seize this opportunity?

9 – 47% of baby boomers maintain a user profile on at least one social network. You know who isn’t bothered by your parents stalking you on Facebook? Businesses.

10 – 42% of social media users check their email 4 or more times a day, compared to 27% of those who aren’t active on social media. You didn’t declare email dead already, did you?

Reflect on these questions while you daydream this afternoon. Happy Friday!

Coke vs. Pepsi 2.0: Social Media Shakes Up the Cola Wars

4
February
2010

As Coca-Cola and Pepsi divest from this year’s Super Bowl ad lineup, top dollar from these two top brands is stirring the social media space into a fizz.

Blake Bowyer (@BlakeBowyer)
Media Program Analyst

The Super Bowl will feel a lot more social this year. And not just because the NFL has failed to put a muzzle on tweeting players or the Saints’ “Who Dat” may be the focus of a trademark lawsuit. No, it’s because the 30-second slices between Sunday’s timeouts and touchdowns will be a lot less caffeinated: Coca-Cola is downsizing its presence during the game and Pepsi is pulling out entirely. Where then will you get Super Bowl-sized updates from the people who brought you delightful parade balloon wars and inspired Dylan/Will.i.am duets? On social networks, of course.

That’s right. If you’re still a new media evolution denier, look no further than your Facebook feed for a jolt and the return of the Cola Wars … 2.0. Remember when a blind taste test was as social as it got in heated rivalry between these tin-can titans? Well, as we’ve seen time and time again, where one may go, the other may follow and this time the path leads away from the Super Bowl and into your digital experience.

It was big news last December when Pepsi let the world know it wouldn’t be taking part in the ad game for XLIV. Even with the Pepsi Throwback campaign in full-swing and ripe for Super Bowl exposure, Pepsi decided its money was better spent elsewhere. For $3.01 million for 30 seconds (plus production costs, etc.), it’s hard to argue – even the announcement has garnered a lot of attention for the brand’s surprising audible. Pepsi spent a whopping $33 million for last year’s face-off and will now commit that money (well, part of it) to an online cause marketing campaign: Pepsi Refresh (which will reportedly cost a mere $20 million). The project will let consumers submit ideas – or in Web 2.0 lingo, “crowdsource” – for where donations go and focus on driving traffic to RefreshEverything.com for voting.

Pepsi Refresh Project - Google Chrome 222010 54238 PM

Coca-Cola, meanwhile, is taking a double-pronged approach by teaming up with Facebook to support the Boys and Girls Club of America and augmenting those efforts with two game-time ads. The spots will direct viewers to the company’s Facebook fan page and encourage them to share virtual gifts, each of which will result in a $1 donation to the youth organization. The effort will be tied into Coca-Cola’s current corporate campaign theme “Live positively”. The company’s Chief Marketing Officer offered some insight as to why Coca-Cola is part of this year’s ad parade: “The Super Bowl … brings families and friends together to celebrate and create memories. It’s a perfect time to open a Coke …  and giving folks a chance to help others through our ads makes the experience even better.”

Facebook  Coca-Cola - Google Chrome 222010 45828 PM-1

So, that’s the new media Cola Wars battleground and, while the brands’ playbooks may seem similar – online, philanthropic, social customer involvement – they’re actually quite different. And, from a strategic social media marketing perspective, only one wins the coin toss: Coca-Cola.

Why? Simply, Coca-Cola is being social. The company is bringing – but not broadcasting – its message to fans, not requiring that they come to it. While one could argue that Pepsi is smart to drive traffic to its site, expose millions to its content, and show off what is admittedly a pretty fantastic online experience, they’re pulling tricks from the same old playbook. Coke is right there every second you’re on Facebook and allowing you to share the easy way you just supported its mission of giving back. Coca-Cola has built a thriving and respectful Facebook fan page, on which most of the content is from fans sharing stories about how Coke is part of their lives. Coke is embracing social media through Facebook and Pepsi is pretending to through a project that is convoluted, inward-facing, and even open to potential abuse and security issues.

This year we don’t have to wait until the ads roll to pick a winner. If 2010 is the year of big brands embracing social media, Coca-Cola sets a golden standard by balancing share of voice, embracing a flattened landscape, and exuding authenticity. Even if opening happiness is a bit abstract, the company’s mission is clear. In fact, it’s on your Facebook wall – pass it around.

Sources: NY Times and ESPN.

Your Gatherers: Giving ‘Em What They Want

25
January
2010

It’s time to stop thinking of social media peeps as fans and followers. They’re gatherers and you may not be giving them enough to come back.

Blake Bowyer
Media Program Analyst

I’ve never really liked the terms “fans” or “followers” for Facebook and Twitter users, respectively. It’s the kind of marketing vocabulary that seems presumptuous. As a verb, someone may have fan-ed your brand or followed your company, but that doesn’t mean they’re a fan of your online presence and you don’t have anything to prove. As much as it pains me to throw another term in the mix, “gatherer” is more appropriate and meaningful. For some reason, this mob has approached your brand after an encounter in another medium or possibly through a tangible interaction. They could have read about you, they may have purchased your products, but now they’ve found you online.

What do you do next?

Act. Give them what they want. New fans and followers expect something, but not the same old something. They could get that from where they’ve been before, but they approached you online for something else. What can you give them? How do you keep the gatherers from dispersing? Know what they want and what they expect from you.

eMarketer gathered some recent information from a small MarketingSherpa study on Reasons for Friending or Following Companies Through Social Media and this table shows the results:

110430 Your Gatherers: Giving Em What They Want

Additionally, a Razorfish study exploring the Primary Reason US Internet Users Follow a Brand on Twitter isn’t identical, but in the same vein:

1085511 Your Gatherers: Giving Em What They Want

While these responses seem intuitive (coupons provide instant, tangible benefits through savings), they’re important nonetheless. Your brand has gatherers because – surprise, surprise – they’re looking for an added benefit; they want value. Being a fan or follower is akin to being a member of an exclusive club or a loyalty program. Your gatherers are wondering, “I’ve found your brand and have chosen to show my support. What will you give me in return?” They’ve done something through social media that other media would never facilitate – they’ve reached out their hands and want to make a deal. Those are the three defining attributes of effective social media marketing: efforts are reciprocal, two-way, and both parties benefit to make it work.

They’ve gathered, now bring them back. You might be counting fans and followers, but seeing those terms as literal is old media thinking with new media execution. They’ll butt heads eventually and your gatherers are more likely to lynch your brand than advocate it.

Foursquare: Not Just for Playgrounds Anymore

18
January
2010

Why the preeminent location-based social network is spearheading social space evolution by encouraging its users to act like loud-mouthed kids.

Blake Bowyer
Media Program Analyst

I’ve never run for elected office, but I still got appointed mayor last week. In fact, I’m the mayor of six places including my neighborhood Subway, a couple of local restaurants, the Daniels College of Business, and two coffee shops. What does this say about me? Well, other than the obvious pronouncement that I spend most of my time enslaved to homework and caffeine, it says I’m an active evangelist of each of these places. I’m not just the mayor for bragging rights, I’m the mayor because I believe they deserve my business and I want my friends to know the same.

Wow, it sounds like Foursquare just turned me nto an unwitting evangelist for two of my favorite Denver haunts: Café Europa and Greeks Gone Wild. I thought I was just having fun and showing off.

This is social media marketing guerilla style. Sure, I’m a fan of tons of places on Facebook, including Waffle House and Black Box Wine, but the nearest Waffle House is a 15-mile daytrip into the badlands from my house and I can’t remember the last time I had cabernet from a spout on my counter. Building enormous Facebook fan followings and stagnant presences on other social networks doesn’t mean that much really. I don’t interact with those brands and I don’t mention them on my Facebook page. The last time my 719 friends saw those two pages pop up on their feeds was when I became a fan. That’s not doing much for these brands’ presences and it’s not being social at all.

Conversely, I checked into Monaco Lanes last night at 10:30 and every one of my friends had the potential to see it. They’ve also watched me check in to – and be crowned the mayor of – Café Europa the past three days. However, the fact that the names of these places show up here and there at varying degrees of regularity isn’t the point. The profound effect is that I am literally interacting with these establishments – I am physically there, spending money, and giving them my stamp of approval with every visit. Friends might come see me or they might not, but if I have any kind of credibility and influence on where they eat, drink, or study (ugh), I may be pushing that business to the top of the list – and top of mind.

Now, that’s clearly a marketer’s perspective, but I find it a valuable one. While many social networks are scrambling to find internal ways to monetize and gain sponsorship, Foursquare is slowly building its presence from the outside-in. Savvy businesses will eventually figure out that people are voicing their support through check-ins and tips. They’ll gain valuable information on visitors, customers’ habits, and take advantage of location-based specials (all of which Foursquare could easily charge for). I just checked in to Café Europa, but I might not be in the mood to deal with an excruciatingly long line for lunch. Thankfully, Carmine’s On Penn – hypothetically – just sent me a lunch special via Foursquare, so I’ll sidestep the line and sit down to some gluttonous Italian food. And that’s where social media self-actualize: asymmetrical two-way communication benefits.

Checkin @ CE

Recently, Foursquare has attracted a lot of other chatter about badges and frequency cards to attract businesses and keep users active. But, I think the truism of transforming a regular like me into an advocate because I like to think I’m cool and go cool places, that’s the crux of Foursquare and its ilk. Now, who wants to challenge me for mayorship of Tokyo Bowl? That one I’m willing to give up. Find me on Foursquare and take my crown: Blake on Foursquare.

Why 2010 Might Be Marketers’ Final Shot in Social Media

23
December
2009

Next year, marketers must evolve with social media and ditch the old games.

Blake Bowyer
Media Program Analyst

While the sun sets on 2009, year-end lists and predictions are coming at us in droves. We’ve even discussed a few of our own on the INSIGHT blog. They’re practically irresistible – fun, brazen shots in the dark with big upsides and risks their authors will hardly be held accountable for. The same can be said for social media, for which the prognosticating generally states that social media will grow up, online marketers will figure out how to better use it, and “2010 is the year of social media ROI.”

While all of those predictions are fine and well – and hopefully true – here’s why I think 2010 will be so important for social media marketing: we can’t blow this.

Social media is undoubtedly revolutionizing marketing, just as technologies that came before it. A media revolution only comes around once in a generation at most and this era might be the biggest opportunity marketers have since, well, the printing press. And, as much possibility and power and delusions of branding grandeur we hope to realize from them, social media could slip through our fingertips in 2010 if we fall off the wagon and ease back into our old roles.

While luminaries like the Ad Contrarian will profess that TV (and often other mass media) isn’t dead (warning: foul language) – and they aren’t, by any means – social media, and new media in general, gave beleaguered hucksters and carnival barkers a fresh face. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter allowed everyone to trade in tweed suits and storyboards for flatteringly small avatars of profile pictures and impenetrable 140-character messages so brief they’re hardly vulnerable to criticism. And that’s the temptation: to use these sparkling new mediums to bathe ourselves in the cleansing ideals of “engagement” and “dialogue” and pretend like we’re doing customers a favor … when, in fact, we have the tendency to talk at them like we usually do.

Permission marketing is fantastic in theory, but a spade is a spade and marketers market. It’s not just the old school of marketing theory, that’s THE SCHOOL of marketing theory. The only one we currently have. For every manifesto on social media marketing and customer experience management that gathers buzz around the internet, there remain throngs of marketers and agencies using new tools for old devices. Don’t get me wrong, we should use social media for marketing – ads, promotions, etc. – but the potential is so much greater.

With TV and radio, marketers can only do so much. Both are – literally – machines used as distribution platforms for content to attract eyeballs for advertising dollars. But interaction is minimal (if absent), the ability to solve problems is limited, and possibility of converting customers into the marketers is unrealistic – unless you want to count the gents who did last year’s Doritos commercial for the Super bowl. (I don’t.) We truly can use social media marketing to create communities and foster trustful relationships between monolithic brands and the people that pay their bills. It’s beautiful.

And it doesn’t have to be disingenuous. Every day I watch customers interact on Facebook with firms as big as Coca-Cola and as small as Boise Fry Company. And they’re DELIGHTED to share experiences with those companies and, as a result, with all of their friends, fellow fans, and miscellaneous eyeballs that cross those pages.

Fullscreencapture12232009111335AM 1 Why 2010 Might Be Marketers Final Shot in Social Media

While the predictions of social media maturity are exciting and necessary, I hope it doesn’t mean marketers figure out how to treat social media like their predecessors and wring the trust – and fun – out of another opportunity. Social media gives us a chance to think differently about the way we talk to and interact with customers, for the benefit of everyone. We’ve lost customers before with other media, and now we have to fight increasingly hard for even a moment of their time. Social media can change all that or we can wait for the next revolution if you want. Personally, I’m stoked about this one. Don’t let it slip away in 2010.

Twitter Went Down Today, Could You Still Engage?

6
August
2009

When social media has a glitch, make sure your organization remains in the conversation.

Blake Bowyer
Media Program Analyst

August 6, 2009, a day that may live in social media infamy. Even the fail whale wouldn’t emerge from the vast oceans of system overload.  Twitter refugees sought bursts of chatter and explanations on Facebook, but then it started acting up. Soon, the world of social media went black and legions of tweeting, Facebooking netizens sat at their computers and watched an idle cursor …

It was scary and, hopefully, it was also a wake-up call. Online and interactive marketers have convinced thousands of organizations and professionals to embrace social media. You will engage, you will interact, you will connect, and you will go viral. The promises are infinite and, if executed correctly, social media can launch you and your products into the conversation. The potential is true and attractive, almost irresistible.

But, what happens when social media fail? I don’t mean fail as in not work strategically, but not work AT ALL. It may seem like an unlikely question, maybe even an unthinkable horror, but it happened today. It was only for a short time, but it could happen again – tomorrow or a week from now. Ask yourself: how did you react? What were your online marketers doing? How does your company stay involved when the lights go out in the crowded room of social media?

That’s the problem with relying on one communication vehicle, or a handful in social media’s case. Research is released daily to support the adoption of social media, but it’s not smart to put the lion’s share of your eggs in one basket as some firms are doing. Even worse, these aren’t just eggs from the hens in the marketing department, but in the customer service and technical support arms as well. Many important functions of customer relationship management are being funneled into social media for good reason: they’re cheap, interactive, personal, and they can provide instant gratification. However, they can’t be your only option.

It’s easy to see why creating a Facebook page is a lot more appealing than opening a call center or launching a PPC campaign, but companies can’t build and sustain effective relationships solely through brief online conversations. It’s not only risky, but it will eventually lead to dissatisfaction. The reality is that, while the base of customers engaging on social media is growing rapidly, not every problem can be solved, not every coupon be served, nor every customer be reached through a tweet. All media, including the newer ones, are part of an integrated marketing effort.

In the end, social media is an answer, not THE answer. So, next time this happens and you find yourself staring blankly at the screen, don’t curse the fail whale because you’re the one lost at sea.