Stop Arguing About Social Media

I'm really getting sick of listening to the arguments raging between Advertising Old School and Web 2.0. You know the arguments I'm talking about.

On one side of the table media traditionalists continue to smugly dismiss Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, Facebook, and all the rest of the newbies as over-hyped, underachieving technological time-traps that have not and will not ever make meaningful contributions to the vast masses of businesses looking to them for improved marketing effectiveness. They roll their eyes at the newly self-christened army of social media gurus filling the blogosphere with unsubstantiated expertise, eagerly looking for opportunities that demonstrate the fallabilites of social media and its practitioners.

On the other side are these same self-annointed gurus, posting, tweeting, webinaring and, in general, proclaiming an end to traditional media and marketing no less complete and final than the invention of the internal combustion engine was to the horse and buggy trade. They can't stop fawning over the engaged relationships brands are allegedly able to have with consumers now, as if life has made a giant leap forward because now I can share with the world how deeply I love my Skippy Extra Chunky!

Here's why the argument needs to stop, and allow commerce to move on: both sides are right, and both sides are wrong.

There's still no better way to deliver a message broadly to a large audience than TV, and cable allows incredible demographic and geographic targeting for attractive efficiencies. FSIs and direct mail are still the best way to deliver purchase incentives. Radio works great for promotional announcements. Billboards and transit have their role for some brands and situations.

Twitter can't replace TV! But people will tweet about a new Apple campaign, or a commercial for a new Nike model they saw during ESPN Sport Center. They'll go to a brand's Facebook to say thanks for the service they got when they responded to a direct mail offer. And thanks to the realtime immediacy of social media, marketers can instantly see if their efforts, traditional or 2.0, are creating traction for the brand.

As an industry we need to stop taking shots back and forth, and remember that we're here to help our clients succeed. We all know we can do that best by capturing what's special about their product or service, and using all the tools we have at our disposal to accelerate consumer awareness, understanding, and purchase behavior. Because in the end it's not about winning an argument, it's about hitting your numbers.