David Wiggs of Hitch, an agency search consultancy in Bellingham, brings up an excellent point about placing too many eggs in any one basket.
With the extreme emphasis on social media marketing today, you might think that modern marketing is a monoculture. That if you’re doing social, you’re doing marketing. True, the way we communicate, consume, share and create content is vastly different that just a few years ago. But ignore a holistic and strategic marketing polyculture for a social media monoculture and you risk the disease and ultimately the death of your brand.
I’ve said many times that social media marketing needs to drive an offline interaction for it to be useful to brands. In other words, SMM is not an end in itself, it’s a means to an end.
In news unrelated, Wiggs would like to hear funny and/or favorite pitch stories from agency personnel.
Hey guys,
Thanks for the shout out!
David
It’s hard to argue that a holistic brand strategy isn’t pretty quantifiably the only good road to go down, I question the focus on Social Media as the straw man. Why Not TV? Radio? Print? Why not an article on the myopic focus on broadcast strategies from traditional agencies?
Point being, yes, “Social Media Agencies” are bullshit, Im just not just most traditional agencies are any better, just different.
Hi Justin
Very good points indeed. The fact is, you rarely run into agencies who “do” radio, print or TV – they’ve long since faded into obscurity. Which, in itself should be a cautionary tale. But you can throw an iphone and hit a social media marketing agency these days.
Not picking on social media agencies. There are some great ones out there. Simply stating the obvious: Have a broad field of vision. Anytime an agency (or client, for that matter) gets caught up in tactics or execution over strategy that short sightedness kills.
David