I read an interesting post recently which asked, "What if there was no marketing?" In it the author described his own realizations of how many messages he ignores because he thinks it could be marketing and notes how over-saturated we are as a culture by the marketing various people do. He has a legitimate concern, especially when you factor in how much social media is used for marketing. And he's not the only one to note this or worry about it, as other people have also written about the over saturation of social media marketing.
The reality is that a lot of social media interaction is based around marketing businesses. And while the author's point is accurate, getting in front of the people that need your services is part of what marketing is based on. Knowing who your ideal audience is helps with your marketing effort, but reaching that ideal audience involves developing some kind of story or providing some information that's relevant to that audience.
The problem that occurs is that many businesses have taken a shot gun approach to marketing, on social media, and other mediums. Instead of identifying that ideal client and focusing the message for that client, businesses shoot the message out to everyone in the hopes that whoever is interested will come to them. This obviously is not an ideal approach to take, but I think it occurs as a result of businesses of falling out of touch with their clients.
For marketing in social media to really work it needs to involve creating a relationship with the client that goes beyond pitching the product. This means that if the client is going to actually notice your business it's got to involve more than asking them to do something for you. You've got to be willing to do something for them.
This is why the concept of free has become so prominent. People don't want to pay for your service or product without testing it first. Marketing as a result has to do more than just tell someone why they should want your service or product. Marketing needs to show why that person should make the choice to buy. And so in a world of over-saturated marketing, the challenge is how to appear less like the other businesses and more like a person that the person would want to relate to, while also still showing what you can offer that person.