Why Invest In Social Media?

"When asked at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2008 whether brands should bother engaging with customers through largely unproven digital methods such as social media during the downturn, analyst Adam Sarner replied, ‘This is going to be a lifeline."

This was only one of the many fascinating insights taken from the MediaBizBloggers.com posting on the Jack Myers website titled, In This Economy, Why Invest in Social Media?, by Jory Des Jardins.

Here’s some more:

"It would seem that social media publishers don’t have to worry; we’re getting the media dollars. Epsilon’s latest survey indicates that Blue-Chip company CMOs are shifting dollars from traditional media (print, TV) to digital, interactive formats. And, Jack Myers predicts that even within digital, the more ‘traditional’ forms (banner ads) will slump compared to online video, widgets, and social networks, on which spending next year will increase by 70 percent. The more accountable the media, and the more targeted, the better. While there has yet to be found a magic formula for measuring the effectiveness of blogs and social networks beyond the clickthrough, there are metrics such as comment volume and inbound links that speak to the relevance of any publisher who may tout your brand.

In the immediate term, ads and online sponsorship validate bloggers’ online addiction and defray our expenses. But it also invokes a halo effect around your brand in the Blogosphere. Bloggers in our network have thanked, even blogged about, our advertisers for helping them cover groceries, or even just their monthly hosting fees. This recognition is the stuff that sparks relationships for life."

It sounds like we’re back to the relationship over the immediate sale.

Then, Wired Magazine features this article from Paul Boutin (a correspondent for the Silicon Valley gossip site, Valleywag) titled, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004.

"Thinking about launching your own blog? Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already got one, pull the plug… Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter… Impersonal is correct: Scroll down Technorati‘s list of the top 100 blogs and you’ll find personal sites have been shoved aside by professional ones. Most are essentially online magazines: The Huffington Post. Engadget. TreeHugger. A stand-alone commentator can’t keep up with a team of pro writers cranking out up to 30 posts a day."

Sounds a little (or a lot) like my Blog posting from yesterday? The New Secret To Blogging Success – Moving From "I" To "You" (only Blogging – in my humble estimation – is still awesome and critical).

Hugh McGuire (form LibriVox) sums it up with a unique perspective and interesting take on his personal Blog: Taking the Linkbait about Blogging, where he says: "Don’t blog to get known, blog to be knowable."

What a great (and different) perspective. He goes on to say:

"if I am evaluating someone as a potential business partner, client, service provider, etc, I want to be able to trust them. There are a few ways of trusting someone: knowing them, getting a good recommendation about them, or knowing about them.

When I am researching a person, a company, a product, I want to be able to go somewhere like a blog to poke around, read up on their thinking and opinions, a place where I can get to know them, what interests them, what they are like. No other platform – not facebook, twitter or anywhere else – comes close to a blog for giving me immediate comfort about & trust in someone I know nothing about."

What do you have to say about all of this?