Comments on: The Discipline of Social Media Marketing

By: Susan Getgood

Susan Getgood — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:54:53 +0000

Thanks for all the comments. I agree 100% Julie, that social media can’t be easily classified as belonging to one group, but unfortunately there is a bit of a turf war going on at the moment between the advertising/guerilla marketing and PR contingents. Which is totally counter-productive. And totally understandable.

As you point out, it’s not unlike the battle for the Website that occurred between IT and marketing in the 90s. The companies that generally succeeded were the ones that realized that the Website was part of the company’s public face, not IT infrastructure, and put the responsibility with a marketing group.

I hope we learned from that. Social media marketing is the evolution of Marketing. It doesn’t belong “in” PR or “in” advertising. It deserves its own seat at the table, with practitioners who understand the imperatives.

By: mothergoosemouse

mothergoosemouse — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:53:36 +0000

Susan, this post reminds me of the New Media designation within IT and how the online space has evolved even on its home territory, so to speak. Social media marketing, like New Media, is a bit of a free for all. It seems that it can’t easily be classified as belonging to any one group, but will be up for grabs among those who learn the most about it (and then really start to drive it).

By: Kare Anderson

Kare Anderson — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 21:55:43 +0000

Kudos Susan and thanks. What a pithy primer for this former WSJ reporter,now author/speaker on partnering, swimming upstream to understand the best use of social media to harness the power of us in this flattening world.

By: Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:14:38 +0000

Another awesome post Susan.

Your perceptions are deep and well thought through.

I wrote a piece recently about the blending of direct with other disciplines and how that actually waters down the true potential of the direct marketing strategy.

We tend to do and recommend what we know best. And both PR, research and direct each requires a lifetime of learning to plan correctly.

Marketing, like the medical field, requires specialization to apply properly. I’m not sure most people have the capacity to blend these skills. Much less master them.

Yet, we must learn how to blend them because our customers are becoming more adept in their use of blended communications strategies.

Perhaps there is a new type of marketer emerging from these changes. I call such a person a “marketing integraters.” They know how to tap into the talent of the specialists and achieve marketing objectives with great skill.

Frankly, I have yet to meet such a person. But that is what is needed.

By: Geoff Livingston

Geoff Livingston — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:50:16 +0000

Great piece! The best training I had for social media occurred at through Dale Carnegie. It was sales class on relationship building. How do you like them apples? And doesn’t that make sense, “How to Win Friends and Influence People?”

The second most important training was my Master’s degree at Georgetown’s Communications, Culture and Technology program. There we studied how Internet technology was impacting the way we as a culture go about our day-to-day lives.

PR and Marketing skills help, but without basic common sense approaches to relationships, and a bigger understanding of sociology — as you say here — they ultimately fall short in this realm.

By: Digital Demystified

Digital Demystified — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:26:20 +0000

Is PR the rightful functional “owner” of social media?

I don’t read the Marketing Roadmaps blog often, but thank you to Susan Getgood for the inspiration (and I promise I’ll become a regular now). Susan has a post on her blog today entitled The Discipline of Social Media Marketing,