Let's see ... is social media about conversions, traffic, click though rates and sales; or is it more along the lines of conversations, authenticity, transparancy and building a sense of community? I guess it really depends on who you ask. My colleague at Intel, Bob Duffy, who works on my team came up with this awesome cartoon that illustrates my point precisely (his post also touches on this subject).
In Bob's post, he talks about being "in" the conversation versus "at" the conversation. Clearly, being "in" the conversation means participating in online discussions; and "at" the conversation could mean buying a banner ad on Techcrunch or Facebook, for example. As someone who is passionate about social media and is responsible for driving conversations about Intel, I believe both approaches are important ... as long as the end result is centered around the latter, conversations.
One way to think about it is the following:
Strategy = participate/facilitate conversations and community building
Tactical = buy a banner add on Techcrunch driving traffic to those conversations.
Thoughts?
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Tags: social media, conversational marketing