By : Jure Klepic
Based on my observations of how most businesses are currently approaching the process of incorporating social media into their marketing plans, I can see that they do not truly understand all of the components of social media. They get that social means building relationships and that media is the form of communication that they are using to build these relationships. But this is not a deep enough understanding on which to base the marketing success of any product or service. There is so much more to be considered, because social media is dynamic, nuanced, and richly layered.
To fully understand and be able to utilize social media effectively, marketers need to obtain a thorough understanding of all its components. Without this knowledge they will only be sending out messages, which will not have the ability to achieve their desired impact. These are the companies that have a Facebook page and run impressive campaigns to get people to “like” them. They think they are now using social media because they have so many followers and post something on their Facebook page every so often. But are their messages hitting the mark and motivating their intended audience to take a specified action? Without incorporating the additional components of social media, these efforts are all unfortunately doomed to failure.
To be most effective in social media, it is helpful to think of its components as forming a cube, with social and media as two of the sides. The additional sides of this cube are object and timing. In modern society, we choose to have our objects define us. In other words, objects such as cars, houses, iPads, etc. define who we are as much as our actions do. Read More
