What's Old Is New Again

Over the last two months I’ve had the extreme pleasure of consulting with a leading marketing firm based in the Chicago area, helping them craft, launch, and incorporate a full web strategy layer into their existing business model. The 15-year-old firm is meeting client demand to figure out everything web2.0 and help them take advantage where it can best serve marketing goals. In so doing, they are also taking a “practice what you preach” attitude which includes a full website redesign and social media rollout. Busy days, indeed.

Here on the pages of WebNewPoint0 I often make the point that dealing with the “new age” of Internet marketing need not be as overwhelming as it appears. Beyond the undeniable hurdles of being able to create content (gobs and gobs of it), much of doing good social media comes down to understanding where it is and isn’t a challenge. Failing to evaluate the nature of the challenge can leave folks paralyzed in the starting blocks. The more I help people wade in the water, the more I see this element playing a role.

Here’s what I find most intriguing through it all: Social media is far less a new thing than anyone might imagine. In the formative days of this medium everyone seems caught in the glow of “shiny object syndrome.” We gotta have it, and all at once we worry about how the heck we’re gonna use it. But beneath all the glow we are apt to soon discover social media’s “something new” impediments aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. There’s less standing in your way than you might think.

In reviewing and preparing a host of case studies for this new site it has become clear that the marketing tactics which have historically solved client challenges are the same core tactics everyone is touting as all the rage in social media. As it turns out, social media might not be so revolutionary. Oh, it’s a fabulous new playing field for marketers, to be sure. But the game hasn’t changed all that much.

Leveraging a company’s internal wisdom to generate a monthly publication that goes out to a client base hungry to understand the value of complex tools and services? Sounds like the same tactic you’d use to produce a blog today. Re-branding and developing a communication strategy aimed at gaining prominence in a competitive trade show environment? Sounds a lot like the process needed to develop a compelling and consistent web presence across multiple online portals in today’s ever-shifting landscape. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

People tend to look at social media and immediately feel left behind – like they have to go back to school and learn things all over again. But my guess is some of the best tacticians in social media have yet to recognize they are already far ahead of the curve, while they are mistakenly worried they will never be able to catch up.