A Measured Approach To Social Media - Sell The Burger Not The Beef
I’m obviously a believer in social media and its possibilities for businesses. However, I’m also extremely conflicted about consultants who solely focus on social media. Many of them, who I personally know and like, are extremely talented individuals and any business should feel confident to use them. There is also a large group of ‘others’ out there but there have been plenty of articles bashing the “snake oil salesmen” of the industry that I don’t need to rehash that discussion. And I should clarify here, the problem I'm defining isn't that all they sell is social media solutions/consulting, it's that they don't do so in a holistic way that takes into account other aspects of the business.
Businesses need to see social media plans that have taken into account their other needs, ones which have accounted for and justified against the other ways those dollars could have been used, and shown how you can cleanly integrate and compliment their other efforts. Otherwise you’re selling ground beef. It might be awesome ground beef, but without a grill, a bun and condiments you’ll never be able to compete with my hamburger.
2 Comments
I totally agree that an integrated marketing strategy, of which social media should be a component IMO, is necessary to optimize business performance. What portion of the hamburger do you consider social media - ground beef, bun, condiments?
Is any part of the integrated marketing strategy more important than another (you can't have a hamburger without ground beef) or is it more like a casserole where you combine whatever works for you in order to make it agreeable to your tastebuds (my casserole may have chicken while yours has ground beef)?
Sharon Mostyn
Twitter - @sharonmostyn
http://sharonmostyn.com
It could be that you walk away saying the *only* thing we need is twitter/facebook/email/direct/billboard/whatever. If so, that's fine, it rarely happens (nor should it) but it's possible. The point is that if you don't start at a higher strategic level than individual tools then you're not providing your clients with all the options they should have. If you want to focus on a specific tool, I'm ok with that, but only if you're playing second fiddle as a specialist to someone else (another agency, etc.) who is more holistic.
Leave a Comment