When the Influencers Lose Their Influence

For those companies still refraining from jumping into social media for a variety of excuses, there is one more reason to consider getting into the fray:  there may soon be no other way to effectively market your firm.

In case you hadn’t noticed, more layoffs were announced this past week at Forbes and The Wall Street Journal in addition to earlier layoff announcements from the New York Times and a myriad of other newspapers, while other publications look to cut staff.

As a former journalist, I grew up with traditional media, enjoy it and wish everyone involved the best.  But as a marketer in today’s world, what should this trend mean to you?  It means readership is way down, advertisers aren’t seeing the value like they once did, and your ability to reach your audience through traditional methods is rapidly disappearing.

Traditional media may find the business model to survive.  The jury is still out. But in the meantime, do you really want to pin your firm’s hopes on its fate?  Isn’t the responsible and practical course of action to begin looking at alternatives?

Now, even if traditional media becomes severely diminished, you could still promote your company’s product and services through direct mail, but good luck on getting targeted mailing lists without print publications to help you.  And if you think the 1-2 percent rate of return is acceptable, be my guest.

Or you can buy ad time on TV, although that is generally cost-prohibitive and not suitable for anything but mainstream audiences.

Then again, you could turn to the social media arena where millions upon millions of people are online every day — searching, reading, viewing, sharing, listening, chatting and creating — to find, attract, build and maintain your audience.  And the cost is little more than some good old-fashioned common sense, imagination and elbow grease.

Isn’t it about time you took the bull by the horns and interacted with your own audience online? 

Because as one client here in Orange County so eloquently remarked recently, “Social media is not just the next big thing — it’s the only thing.”

(Photo courtesy of just.Luc)

Tags: client, forbes, layoffs, magazines, new york times, newspaper, orange county, social media, traditional media, wall street journal