The thing that I’ve seen consistently raise eyebrows when presenting marketing communications strategies to clients is the idea that social media programs do NOT have to live in their own isolated bubble.

“Wait, you mean the intelligence that I gather through my email campaign can be used in my PR/Facebook/Twitter/SEO programs (and visa versa)?!”

Yes.

Each medium does have its own challenges. You can’t treat people the same over email as you would over Facebook. It just doesn’t work. BUT, the information you gather from how your audience best responds to email campaigns to what keywords they search and have alerts set for to what types of blog posts they are most likely to “like” on your Facebook fan page has no boundaries (other than extrapolating to unrelated audiences).

Audience behavior intelligence is universal.

Don’t just collect all that information and stare at it. Use it! Understand the way that your audience behaves on Twitter/Facebook/YouTube/Linkedin/Google so that you can be exactly where they are, in ways that they want to see you while encouraging the behavior that you want them to express  (phone calls, link sharing, blog post publishing…).

For a lot of marketers, social media technology itself still seems pretty foreign, but let’s not forget that behind (most) of those Twitter accounts is still another human that has the same basic needs and desires as any other person.

Because when you break it all down, your Twitter followers aren’t all that different from your Facebook fans and your YouTube channel subscribers. They just choose different channels to engage with your brand and the content you produce.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wackystuff/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Tired of hearing about how the next big killer application is going to turn your business into a gold mine and make life easier for you?

Yes, we all know that mass media habits have changed and that we’re now a wired society, dependent on our computers and iPhones for information. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that something new equates to something better for your business.

As we become mesmerized by and inundated with new technologies, we tend to forget about the one deciding factor when purchasing a service or product from one company over another: human trust.

A stroke on a keyboard, an e-mail or a tweet will never replace the experience of meeting someone, shaking a hand and engaging in a conversation. When that happens, there’s trust and with trust comes customer loyalty. Optimizing for better ranks on Google will help bring people to your website and posting your updates on Facebook and LinkedIN will help connect you with more people, but there’s no replacement for meeting prospects in person!

As the holidays approach, we urge you to try the next big thing in marketing – human trust.