Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Social Content.
You know how content marketing and social are all you need to do these days?
How you should forget about advertising, forget about search, forget about banner advertising, forget about PR, forget about anything that isn’t content and social?
Well, it’s bollocks, obviously.
Just because hordes of content and social evangelists wax lyrical about the myriad panacean attributes of their latest buzzwords does not make it so.
Consider that, broadly speaking, people find things either by looking for them, or by serendipity. It may seem obvious, but I’ll underline it nonetheless: People looking for things is search, serendipity is more akin to social and content – but also must include advertising, marketing, PR…
So, obviously, only doing content marketing and social, only entertaining clients and prospects entirely ignores anyone who might be searching, but also ignores anyone who may read an article or a review, who may actually interact with a banner ad, Facebook ad or Twitter ad, but also ignores those people offline, who might drive past that billboard, see that TV ad, read that newspaper article, because who cares about those people, right?
Nope, it’s bollocks, cannot be justified.
Obviously, content marketing and social are valuable channels. Equally obviously they cannot, and do not, replace existing channels. The challenge then lies in making them dance beautifully together, rather than pit them against each other.
So true Andrew; so when do we start making a family?
I’m not sure I fancy the surgery that would be needed for that, Colin…
Truly, there’s this idea that everything digital is divorced from the rest of the marketing strategy. Ask any 5 marketers what their marketing strategy is- I wonder how many of them will answer with a verbal illustration of how their disparate tactics are loosely strung together.
Sage as ever, Tinu. Of course there are some excellent cohesive and coherent examples, but on the whole you’re entirely right, more’s the pity!