Should You Be Marketing In Social Media?

November 18th, 2008 by Nick Gonzalez

P&G’s Ted McConnell has run large organizations, Been staff to c-level executives, holds 4 Patents, and has successfully driven Digital Marketing at P&G - which is admittedly hard to change. I know this because I read it on his LinkedIn Profile. I also know this means that when Ted speaks about marketing, it means something demonstrably different than when John Smith (who happens to live in Los Angeles) speaks about it.

Frankly, Ted McConnell has more influence over my thoughts and feelings when it comes to marketing, particularly in his latest speech covered in AdAge.

At a forum on digital media, McConnell said he isn’t sure that marketers even belong in Facebook. Specifically, “What in heaven’s name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?”. McConnell sees marketing on “social media” as invasive and with too much low quality inventory.

Old Metrics - New Medium

He’s right when you apply traditional metrics to this new media. When ad sizes were standardized and users saw roughly the same number of ads on each site, clicks and impressions helped gauge the success of campaigns against one another. However, when you buy on social media, impressions and click through rates can vary widely. Traditional media sites like Yahoo or online news sites deliver an alluring consistency, but misses the mark on what makes social media a more effective platform. Brand advertising isn’t about generating impressions or clicks. Brand advertising is about delivering a meaningful message.

It’s All About Meaning

Meaningful messages come from the people we love, hate, and admire. It’s why Nike sells shoes with player’s names on them. It’s why we value a letter from a friend. And it’s why I’m writing about something P&G’s digital guru, Ted McConnell said. When messages come from meaningful people, they influence our decisions and thinking. Focusing on impressions and clicks loses the forest for the trees.

Our social banners focus on meaningful messages. We let advertisers sponsor conversations generated by users on their terms. Advertisers only pay when users volunteer to say something about the brand to their friends. These are impressions that leave an impression and clicks that lead to conversation. That’s what social media marketing is about.

Tags: advertisers

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 11:26 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.