Social Media: Recession resistant…

Thanks to Groundswell for posting the following article about how social media is looking as if its recession resistant. I have been in the fortunate position to have seen a fair few social media strategies from both core media agencies, digital specialists, and also the self-certified “Social Media Agency”. Each one has its merits, although my view is that for social media to work, you have to have a genuine understanding of whats going on with the rest of the media mix. How can you lead conversations about products, yet you don’t know when the highest TVRs are happening? you don’t know when the latest radio sponsorship is? or you aren’t sure if the press launch is in the Metro or The Standard?

Larger agencies therefore have a real chance to put a rather large stake in the ground when it comes to social media because of the inherent understanding of how other media channels are working and the integration that they have to be used to in order to make this things work. My understanding from creative counterparts is that this is an area where independent digital agencies struggle to fit in, they simply don’t integrate that well. An us and them attitude if you like. Larger agencies must do this otherwise there is no chance of survival.

It is therefore reassuring to all of us that we are talking about social media being recession resistant and Josh’s article couldn’t have come at a better time. However, we all still have a big job to do in terms of education about social media – mainly that it isn’t just Facebook or Twitter, but so much more. Another, that it isn’t free – another common misconception is that setting up pages in YouTube and Facebook is free. If you don’t want anybody visiting the pages then I guess you could say it is, however, if you want free stuff, you aren’t going to get quality so its important to understand what parts are free and what parts need paying for.

Am looking forward to the Social Media’s Indian Summer starting……. now. Go.