Surrey based PR agency, thebluedoor, is increasingly helping clients integrate social media into their marketing campaigns. But it is clear that many companies and brands are holding back from social media and I suspect this is a combination of fear and lack of understanding. Social media is becoming social business and is an area that allows smaller companies to play alongside the biggest brands. What an opportunity! But many seem terrified of the subject.
I recently attended a networking event, the theme of which was ‘surviving in a digital age’. To my surprise, the speakers, some of which were representing very well-known brands, managed to talk around the subject entirely. They were old school marketeers who talked about the psychology of marketing. You could see them cringe every time they tried to integrate their marketing speak with the digital age and I wondered what would happen at question time – would the cringe become a squirm?
Question time arrived and, yes, I watched them squirm. They answered various social media questions, or rather answered them without any reference to social media at all and danced around the subject (helped by the moderator) – badly.
Travelling back on the train I sat there pondering back over the evenings ‘how to survive in a digital age’. I was so surprised that the speakers had completely talked around the subject. Also, how often this must happen with some of the largest organisations and brands known to us.
Have any of you reading this experienced this? I would love to know. Given the huge potential of integrating social media into marketing campaigns – I was blown away with the lack of knowledge displayed by a group of such high ‘digital flyers’.
