I found the Gillin reading for this week to be very interesting. I appreciated that Gillin points out that social media is not for all businesses. Just because social media is all the rage, does not necessarily mean it is something you want to spend your time and resources on. It's something you need to carefully evaluate and consider. You must ask yourself, is this right for me?
I also appreciated that Gillin states social media marketing can be used for multiple goals, not just selling a product. This is something that I have brought up in previous posts, so it's nice to see a marketing book that actually addresses that social media marketing goes against the grain of traditional marketing.
As Gillin directs, traditional marketing works to interrupt the user. Social media marketing works to engage. As Dr. Howard discusses in his book, social media is successful when engaging users. Users have to get something out of the social media in order to continue coming back. Social media marketing works the same way. You have to work to engage.
I also found it interesting that Gillin instructs the marketer to think of themselves as a publisher. Not only does think tell the marketer that they have to completely change their game plan, but it also draw connections between publishing and marketing (which I am also doing in my graduate thesis).
As I addressed in my previous post, Gillin tells the reader that social media marketing success will not happen over night. I think that's something that some businesses forget about. It also ties in with creating a relationship with the user.
Basically, the reading for Gillin this week completely tied in with a lot of thoughts and points I have been posting over the semester. It was nice to have some form of validation that I am at least on the right track with my thoughts and ideas. Twitter has a very interesting (and very large) info-graphic comparing social media and traditional media marketing. I think it sums of Gillin's points very well.
I also really enjoyed how Gillin pointed out that social media is not for every business. I think we have really learned that in Howard's class with some of the website presentations. Social media websites do not always cater to everyone because of the features that it offers. Some businesses are better off utilizing their home website as a way to communicate with the public. Companies can still use things that Gillin discusses, in the chapter and others, such as writing styles and things to include on their pages.
ReplyDeleteI also talked about Gillin's mention of the differences between social media marketing and mainstream marketing. The two are so different but so often compared and intermixed that it's important to note the very definite distinction. Just because both are selling the same product, doesn't mean it can be done in the same way. Mostly because it's all about who you're selling the product to, and that changes drastically depending on which type of marketing you're engaging in. I think you did a good job of expanding on that idea mentioned by Gillin. It's an important one to take away from this chapter.
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