The worst mistake Digital Marketing evangelists committed more than a decade ago? Claiming digital marketing can track everything. Leaving us with a mountain of useless data and irrelevant data points.
The worst mistake Social Media evangelists committed in the last few years? Claiming that Social Media is cheap. Or even free. Leaving sad ruins of amateurish Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and Social Media presences with no audience.
Social Media is not free. Social Media is not cheap. Social Media requires a considerable of time and resources to make it work. That's right, I said it, on the record.
Any business initiatives without sufficient resources are doomed to fail. The platforms might come free (Not really, if you consider that your data points on Facebook are owned by Mark Zuckerberg.) but to produce meaningful results requires the time and expertise of people who live and breathe your business objectives and are able to develop innovative strategies that will help you achieve them. Looking at Social Media as an experiment or test almost always ends in failure. This "toe-in-the-water" approach is often considered the safest solution but safe equals too often: No money, no resources, no time, no results.
Social Media requires a multi-channel approach because it's nothing more than an extension of your current marketing strategies. How can you incorporate interactivity and UGC into your current site? What are the best platforms for your marketing strategies to extend to the Social Web? How can you evolve your current communication strategy and adjust them to the needs and desires of the Social Web? These and 53 (or so) other questions have to be answered before you commit to Social Media.
If you have a very limited budget, don't bother with Social Media initiatives. A quick refresh of your site or a new approach to your newsletter might be a better investment than a wet toe in the Twitter stream.
On the other hand, if you have a decent marketing budget, consider the cost of Social Media. Be realistic with your resource allocation (an intern developing the Social Media strategy doesn't cut it), hire the best people you can afford and accept Social Media as a transformative force. At its best, Social Media will change the way your company does business. Making it worth your while. And a healthy share of your marketing budget.
