A plea for traditional media
Posted on November 14, 2008 by Tom
In hist post, ‘Why social media is more measurable than traditional media’, Jacob Morgan discusses the topic of social vs. traditional media. And he’s right that a lot of companies should use that measurability to redefine their efforts and maybe put more energy in the proper use of social media. But the danger is that companies get tempted to shift their budgets in the wrong way, just because it’s more measurable and maybe a few short term successes.
And there are plenty of reasons why this could be so tempting:
· Traditional media is expensive, think about how much you could save?
· All research points out that the effect of traditional media is declining.
· Social media are still in an early adopter stage but gaining momentum fast.
· Social media are cheap and easy to use.
· You can focus your efforts to better reach your target demographic.
But the fact that you can measure one thing better than the other doesn’t mean you have to rearrange your campaign.
· What is your message? What are you trying to communicate? The medium is the message. Remember McLuhan’s wise words.
· What is your goal? Are you thinking long term or short term? Social media are a great way to build a community. This is a long term commitment. This doesn’t apply for all companies. Sometimes you need a short term one-shot.
· What have you done in the past? If people expect your advertisements on billboards, if that’s what you’ve been doing up untill this moment, why would you completely change your efforts? If you want to get in, do it slowly.
· What’s your target demographic? If your target are senior citizens, chances are you can reach a few of them through social media and build a loyal customer base, but I haven’t seen a lot of senior Tweeters yet.
· What are your competitors doing? It’s always great to be the first to do something. The power of the first is always greater than the one who comes second, even if his product is better. Do some research before you dive in unknowingly.
Don’t get tempted by low costs, better measurability,… to completely change your strategy. Traditional media has it effect and will be for a long, long time. I still believe that in most cases it’s the backbone of all my campaign. But this is just in my field, and I’m just selling theatre tickets. 
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