James Richardson

Facebook this, Twitter that, Social Media is taking over the world, and the marketing budgets are now starting to be stretched to focus on this new ad exciting medium.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a social media junkie-I use them all and most likely, more than the next guy, but its should never be the core-it should be a secondary channel.
I have noticed recently brands are getting caught up in the hype, and forgetting about the online marketing fundamentals – SEO and PPC.

By concentrating on SEO and PPC as the primary-with some Social Media work to help build communication channels with current and potential customers-your going a long way to having a well rounded online marketing strategy.

Here are 3 reason why SEO and PPC are better than Social Media.

1. SEO looks after the ‘Homebase’
   This principle was coined by Chris Brogan, and later Darren Rowse and resonates perfectly in this case. When approaching Social Media, remember-its not your website-you don’t OWN it. 
Social media outlets do change as new players come on the scene (Think Myspace.com), so by all means use social media as a marketing outlet for your brand, but use it as a way to draw people into your ‘Homebase.’
   By spending time, money and efforts improving your SEO, or spending money directing PPC traffic to your site-you are looking after your business long term and creating more direct leads and visitors to your website.
2. SEO does not require full engagement
   Don”t get me wrong, SEO requires plenty of time and effort-but you can manage and control it through use of third party SEO companies, or available internal resources. 

   SEO does not require you to check and monitor things on an hourly basis, and does not require a sense of humor or any creativity.
3. SEO and PPC is measurable and provides a direct ROI
   Yes, I’ve heard the @dell story! Getting a direct ROI from social media is difficult, and hard to measure. SEO and PPC were at that point when people were still spending thousands on print ads, but today, you can track things down to finer details.

Social Media is great. I certainly encourage all brands, companies, and individuals to invest time in the technology, but never lose sight of the end game.

What began as a very clever television commercial series (By very clever, I mean hilarious and silly), has morphed into something of an internet phenomena in the past few days.

Moving past the hilarious ads, the marketing team behind the campaign took to social media platforms to engage directly with fans and address comments, with the use of the actor from the ad, and some clever use of writing and youtube.

At last count there was 116 video responses to intent user questions, some absurd, some funny, and others that were a clear marketing ploy to reach influential users – and all executed perfectly.

Now, we don’t all have access to a team of writers, high quality video gear, or the fandom of internet celebrities (Just yet), but we can still take some great learning’s from this campaign that we can implement for our own brands:

1. Video content is compelling and well received: Video content is a great way to promote your brand. Everyone has fast internet, and short attention spans. By hitting them with meaningful video content-you will have an easier job engaging them quickly.
2. People share cool stuff: The great thing about social media is that things can take off really quickly if someone likes it. Social Media is built for sharing, so if you create something compelling, clever, amazing, the masses will do the spreading of the message for you. Use this theory in everything you do, especially when writing blog content-good content spreads.