“In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message.”

-Marshall McLuhan

You have come to the conclusion that you need a SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY. You know this because you have joined social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn and see potential to build a community around your brand. You know this because you have interacted with your potential demographic on the micro-blogs of Twitter and foursquare; read their recommendations and reviews on forums such as TripAdvisor and Yelp; peered into their lives through the content communities of YouTube and Flickr. You’ve done your due diligence by visiting user-generated sites like WikiAnswers and Quora. Having been to all of these social computing technology sites, you have come away thinking you need a SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY for one reason: the people you want to reach are already there.

At one point, we thought the same thing.

But let’s think about this a different way.

With traditional advertising (print, outdoor, broadcast), your brand launches into a monolog with your target market, with them passively engaged.

With the so-called New Media, of which social media is the most prominent outlet, your brand is afforded the opportunity to engage in an open dialog with your target market, with them actively engaged.

But with what we here at Naartjie Multimedia are calling NOW MEDIA, a fully integrated blending of traditional and social media marketing, you will have a SOCIAL ACTIVITY STRATEGY that will engage them in a multi-log, give them a true sense of community, and will keep them fully immersed long after they have passed your billboard, put down your brochure, scanned your QR code, watched your TV spot, “liked” your Facebook page, or visited your business. You will have established a relationship.

Because Social Media is essential a place, a room for people to gather, a “where.” There are literally over 1,000 Social Media sites on the Internet today, each with their own set of shorthand and etiquette: “likes” and “badges,” “followers” and “mayorships.” Some have found a way to monetize the social experience, like Facebook, and will be around for a long time. Some, like Twitter, are struggling to find a way to bring in revenue. Others, like MySpace, have peaked and are holding on for dear life. And then there is Second Life that never had one to begin with.

Point being, these Social Media sites are just places, and attempting to target an audience by only focusing on the Social Media destination where the greatest number happens to be gathering isn’t necessarily going to yield the highest ROI. Would you rather have 1,000 silent “likes” or 300 wildly vocal fans chatting your business up with every post?

Case in point, the silent war going on right now between Facebook and Google+.

That is why we at here at Naartjie Multimedia offer our clients a SOCIAL ACTIVITY STRATEGY.

McLuhan’s Equation is still a bit of a shock. Social Media, when you get past the “splitting and dividing,” is simply people talking to people.

That’s all.

The medium is, indeed, the message, and the message is user-generated.

But people are more complex than the room in which they gather.

They cannot be fully answered by the question, “Where?”

You already know the where.

Our SOCIAL ACTIVITY STRATEGY will answer the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHY, and HOW.

So, come on down to the depot and let’s get down to business. We’ll activate the future together.

~TEAM NAARTJIE.

 

And it goes with out saying, but why not “like us” on Facebook?