Is Social Media Just an Internet Marketing Fad?
I’ve heard this question several times recently and it reminds me of my graduate school final project, which I wrote about PR and marketing in the microbrew industry. (Yes, it was fun and yes, I did do a lot of on-site visits for my research in addition to an internship at Mass Bay Brewing Company. But it was also a serious look at the grassroots-style marketing that was typical of these companies!) It was 1995 and tons of skeptics were predicting that microbrewing was just a fad.
My response was always, “You’re telling me that the hundreds of thousands of people drinking these better tasting beers are going to just stop one day and switch back to drinking beer-water? No way. You can’t ‘unring’ the decent beer bell.”
And they’re still here, aren’t they? Sure, there was some consolidation and microbrewers with weak business models went out of business. That’s just normal with any trend. But it has changed the face of the American brewing industry.
But this was a trend with a history going back to our founding fathers. Microbrewing wasn’t new to the U.S.—it was the resurgence of a pre-Prohibition tradition of having hundreds of small breweries serving handcrafted beers to local customers. I’ll skip the history lesson as to why they died out for awhile, but it’s highly unlikely we’d face the combination of Prohibition and the Great Depression followed by a World War again.
On the other hand, social media has dramatically changed communication. One-way conversations with companies, politicians, and the rest of the “elite” pushing their message out into the world have become two-way conversations. Hundreds of thousands of people now expect to have a way to respond and make their voice heard. And information, which is a key element of power, is no longer the domain of a few. It’s available to anyone with an internet connection and can be distributed around the world in an instant.
Do you really think people are going to just relinquish all that?
Like the brewing industry, the tools of social media may change and evolve—websites and applications may come and go. But the change being created by social media is here to stay.
It too, has some historical basis. Community was once created by living close to other family members, growing up with your cousins, volunteering for the church bake sale and frequent socializing with your neighbors. Then we started working longer and longer hours and became more mobile, more paranoid and more isolated. In many respects, social media is rebuilding that sense of community by redefining what your community is.
Of course, it may be hard to borrow a cup of sugar when your “community” members live all over the world.
Posted: September 29th, 2008 under Online Marketing.
Comments: 5
Comments
Comment from Ginny
Time: September 29, 2008, 11:14 pm
I don’t see how social media as a whole could be seen as a fad. Elements of it perhaps (will Twitter be around in 10 years? I hope so, but maybe not. Maybe something even more amazing will replace it).
BTW, brilliant idea for your final project in grad school. Obviously there was more to it than drinking some tasty beers, I’m sure it was hard work. But sounds like it was probably a lot of fun too.
Ginny´s last blog post..Is it too early to start decorating for Halloween?
Comment from Dan Hughes
Time: September 29, 2008, 11:24 pm
People calling Social Media a fad, are not looking to the future…. Or the past. Your point about long term habbits being created in a short period of time is completely accurate. In fact, this month Anheiser came out with Bud American Ale…. Yeah, I’m still laughing too… But back to my point. Social media is NOTHING NEW. If it is a fad, it has been for thousands of years. Social media is simply the evolution of the water cooler …. The town square … Even a Roman bath! It’s a collection of real people sharing real life together. Some of them will form ideas there that will let lead a future empire…. And others will be lucky to get out alive! Me…. as a smart marketer I go whereever people are and set up my booth…. It’s a lot easier for people to give me their money when Im only a few feet away.
Comment from Tracy Needham
Time: October 1, 2008, 1:09 pm
Thanks guys for the comments! I agree that I was shocked to hear people questioning it’s staying power, but I have to believe these people just haven’t tried to get involved with it. Or else they would understand. But it is scary that at least one of these people was in marketing for a big tech company!
Ginny–Yes, there was a lot of work involved (I should have published the result!) but it was fun–which is the best kind of work!
Dan–Yep, it’s pretty much a concept that’s always been around, but the medium has changed. Bud American Ale put out by a company now owned by European brewery? Priceless! I avoid all the big brewer’s microbrew knock-offs (Blue Moon) as well as Sam Adams, because Jim Koch is such a jerk.
Tracy
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Time: October 7, 2008, 1:08 pm
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Comment from Jeremy from Outcome3
Time: November 6, 2008, 1:28 am
You hit it right on the head: it’s the exact same thing we’ve been doing throughout history, just using a different medium.
Sadly, it’s still a hard sell for many clients. For us, return on investment is probably the big objections, but with analytics demonstrations, we usually break through.
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