Social Networking is about Complimenting Not Replacing the Real World
One of the questions I often get asked when I meet a new client is “should we replace traditional media with online marketing or social media?” and more often than not my answer is no. Why? Because the role of marketing and communications is to strategically align our businesses with our consumer, brand supporter and stakeholders, and let’s not kid ourselves, people have lives away from in front of their computers.
Need proof?
According to a survey by Synovate, 58% of adults surveyed in 17 countries (Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates and the US) did not know what social networking was, with only 26% of respondents belonging to social networking sites and 36% of social network users losing interest in online social networking altogether. 78% of social networkers, specially in Central and Eastern Europe, further agreed that people would be better off doing outdoor activities than spending time in front of a computer all the time.
Personally I have to agree - blame it on being Portuguese 
However it’s about balance. Online marketing - especially one that is socially driven - is an important, targeted communication strategy for consumer-facing brands, specifically with the survey pointing out that 37% of all people from the UAE, 35% of South Africans and 29% of Taiwanese having more friends online than they have offline. What this means is that while social media and online marketing is not a mass communication tool, the Internet can and should be used to complement and extend a brand’s offline activations and marketing efforts by speaking to niche and/or targeted communities for the purposes of building relationships, reputation and support.
David Griner asks the question “is social networking (social media) shrinking?” My view is that people are becoming more experienced and as with most things in life the novelty of social networking is wearing off, especially across developed markets. With this comes the fact that those who remain on social networking sites are genuinely interested and active users of same, which affords companies the opportunity to look for measurable, value-based methods of penetrating this “ecosystem”. This is a good thing.
What do you think? Is social networking shrinking? Should companies pay it any attention?
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Comments
For me it is about the target market. Traditional advertising is all about targeting - you don’t place with Huisgenoot if you want to speak to premium audiences etc. Similarly social media is about targeting - what your business or brand objective is and how to achieve that. The notion of one media replacing another doesn’t make sense. Radio hasn’t replace the telephone, television hasn’t (yet) been replaced by the mobile phone. It’s about combining, targeting and having an effective mix of mediums to achieve what you want to achieve for the segment or target market you are speaking to.
Thanks for your comments Mandy and Christine. You both touch on the point of target marketing, which is about reaching specific customers, new and old, and satisfying their individual needs. The lesson I think has to be that the biggest successes occur when the right touch points are used across numerous media types to communicate one branded experiences to the right people within the target market with the ultimate goals of conversion or retention and buzz.
Gino…
I’d say social networking is shrinking… It isn’t shrinking in the sense that its users are less interested, they are just more focused.
Traffic is shifting and the more people than ever have the knowledge to lead and build such technology development.
Gino, good post!
I’m not too convinced that social networking is ’shrinking’ so much as becoming more ’selective’ and ‘picky’.
It feels as if every week there is a new social networking tool or website launched - whether for business, personal, IM related (such as twitter.com) etc etc
It is becoming increasingly difficult to stay in touch with all of these platforms.
It is easy to sign-up and test the environment, and I believe we have to test the environment to see if it may be a niche that could potentially fit ourselves as individuals or company (advertising/ networking potential), ie feasible.
However, only a select (and robust) few remain active / users. The same can be said (and seen) for social network applications.
Those that seem to survive are amongst others:
1. user-friendly
2. niche / targeted (whether for peers or industry)
and as you’ve stated “affords companies the opportunity to look for measurable, value-based methods.”
It is certainly not feasible to all industries, but as with any other ‘online marketing technique’ is an area that should be explored through testing.