Article Written By: Garrett Hollander on Fri, Feb 11, 2011 @ 03:23 PM (Vendere)
When I really immersed myself in the world of marketing a couple years ago, social media was all the rage and the hottest buzzword around. You couldn't go anywhere on the web without little innocuous buttons prompting, nay chiding you, to "join the conversation." And in huge numbers we tweeted, we facebooked, we dugg, we stumbledupon a crapload of internet content. It's 2011, and so I ask the question - Today, what exactly are the primary uses of social media? It seems the answer is simple.
- For individuals - Connect with others
- For companies - Actively drive business
- For companies - Passively increase brand awareness
Social media has succeeded tremendously on point #1. I mean I can't be the only one with more than a few Facebook friends from high school and college, who I never would have thought about again, had Facebook never been invented.
As far as business application of social media (points #2 and #3), it's very much a mixed bag. In looking at various statistics on the web, it tends to be hit or miss. Some very mature marketers are driving business with the medium, but what about the active-but-not-a-wizard group? Mixed results.
