Social Media is Not (Just) a Marketing Channel

Posted: November 16th, 2009 | Filed under: Thinking | Tags: , | Comments Off

As a the number of brands appearing in social media is growing, it seems so is the confusion about how to use it. Can social media bring return on investment? Should it replace a traditional marketing? Which sites are most effective?

The answer is nuanced. Social media can be a marketing tool, but it is also PR, customer service, focus groups and networking, among other things.

And if brands use the wrong approach at the wrong time, they can make huge missteps – and with all those millions of people watching, it can be disastrous. Router manufacturer Belkin learned this lesson the hard way when they tried to pay a blogger for good product reviews.

So what is social media? Read the rest of this entry »