SPIDERbytes

Social Media is here. Long live Social Media! Time to abandon your web site and focus on the next big media bonanza. Right?

Marketing has been and always will be about reaching out to your target audience with messaging that draws them out, that speaks to them, that ultimately calls them to action. Finding your audience where they are at is the biggest challenge, as we can waste valuable dollars speaking to the masses without really reaching where your demographic is hanging out.

And along comes Social Media. We can get very specific about whom we’re talking to, by understanding who’s talking where, and attracting people who are interested in the services and products you offer. For example, you can find, start or participate in groups and conversations in LinkedIn and Facebook and there are over 15 million active Blogs covering virtually every demographic out there.

Social Media allows you to have conversations with people in both controlled and uncontrolled environments. You can measure sentiment, you can test concepts, you can respond to unsolicited feedback about your company, you can announce events, you can pontificate on the merits of current events, you can chat and you can simply observe.

But most of all, Social Media is a forum for brand recognition and “attempting” to get your audience to take another step – your “Call To Action”. It’s essentially the typical objective of most marketing tactics. You are asking your audience to take another step, to do something else, to think about you, to move forward, to buy your product, to donate, to engage, and on and on and on.

Sometimes, we want them to call us directly or do something in the physical world, but quite often we want to at least get them to park themselves on our virtual doorstep, like our web site. Many people might consider a blog or a Fan Page to be a destination, but I have not seen one of those that, without a lot of custom manipulation, ends up being a worthy place to call people to go to.

When built correctly, your web site is engaging and interactive. It is not a replacement for social media, but it can contain Web 2.0 features that will allow your customers to engage, and talk about your products and services, or the things that matter to your business. Social Media is about conversations where you are not the center of attention, but it can also allow you to create an emotional connection with people. Your web site, on the other hand, is all about you, your products and services. So, drawing people to this place of business, where they are now focusing on you as the “center of attention” is definitely an admirable “call to action.”

Time to kill your web site? I think not. It’s actually time to build it up, and make it more accommodating for those you attract with your new Social Media skills.