It’s here to stay. Social media is considered de rigueur for marketing communications. Social media should be a part of, that is an integrated part of, your company’s total Integrated Marketing Campaign (IMC). For most companies and organizations, it should not be your only tactic to reach your target market. By definition, if your firm’s target markets are segmented and identified, there is a good chance that you will find that social marketing will actually miss a portion of the market that you are trying to reach.
There has been an interesting trend of late, where organizations are choosing to use FaceBook and Twitter as their primary communications channel to the publics. Some organizations are heavily pushing the use of CR Codes as the way to reach the tech savvy generations. The problem is that some companies have been only using Social Media. Why is this a problem?
1. Without integrating your marketing message across different media, the opportunity to get it reinforced via hearing it multiple ways is lost.
2. Using Social Media only reaches those who are online, and only that segment of the population that is online and receiving your message. By only using Social Media, you exclude not only that part of your target market that may not be online and on the site you want them to be, but you can be missing those who for some reason or other, aren’t connected to the Internet or aren’t users.
While most of my friends have their iPhones or BlackBerry phones, iPads, Ultraportables and Netbooks, not everyone is online. We tend to have friends with similar interests and lifestyles, and technology fits in this category. However, a February 2010 Survey reported by CNET indicated that in the USA, 40% said they had no Broadband access at home, and 30% had no access at all. The report states that:
“People with higher rates of broadband access tend to be younger, white or Asian, highly-educated, married, and with higher incomes, while those with no broadband are often seniors or minorities, less educated, and living in non-family households with lower incomes or unemployed.”
While this demographic may appear to be the one you want, it is important to recognize you will be missing your secondary target. The secondary target may be the group that influences the primary target, especially if they are seniors or disabled persons with limited incomes but with families and friends with whom they have influence. Also keep in mind that there is often the assumption that people with low incomes lack education, but due to economic downturns and high unemployment, this is not necessarily still true for all persons with low incomes.
