COP3 - Research - SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING IS SET TO EXPLODE. WHO WILL CONTROL IT?

 SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING IS SET TO EXPLODE. WHO WILL CONTROL IT?http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/social-media-advertising-set-explode-control/234297/ 
By Michael Lazerow

The reality is that no agency or vendor can just "make it work." Why? Very simple: the rise of Facebook, Twitter and the other social platforms has made it easier than ever to distribute content at scale. But it doesn't work without a commitment to the content. Content is power. Content drives connections. 

Brand advertisers need to find their voice. Once they do, all things fall into place. The voice doesn't come from a single campaign or ad agency. It comes from the soul of the business. Just look at Ford. The company was on death's doorstep in 2008 in the middle of the global financial collapse. Since bottoming out, it focused on its products, openness and committed to telling its stories through the stories of its owners. Its stock price is up 600% since then. No one agency or tool or vendor did this. The company did it and others just played a small role in making them smarter, better and faster.

The industry is still talking about "influence marketing" and identifying influencers. Brands are still talking about launching social presences with "engagement" as their end game, and not a means to an end. Most brands have invested in building suboptimal communities that sit in their own Caribbean Island. 

These islands are warm, balmy and breezy, filled with tropical fruits and umbrella-topped drinks. They live on social platforms growing faster than ever and serviced by hundreds of small agencies and vendors hoping to eek by off of tips earned carrying your bags to your room. The islands of different social presences make brand managers feel good as they escape their day-to-day pressures of driving real business results. 

But they are islands, cut off from the grind of everyday life when you need to focus on blocking and tackling to grow. The only way brands get off their social islands is by looking at social media not just as an engagement vehicle for a small audience, but as part of their larger advertising and marketing efforts. What I realized long ago, and why Buddy Media acquired a social advertising company, is that this isn't just about social media. 

Social media - the publishing of content through owned channels to foster community engagement - is no more real than the idea that you're going to live on a Caribbean Island for the rest of your life. 

It's critical to engage, but also to engage at scale. It starts with content and social engagement with that content. But that engagement is not an end in and of itself. It's a means to an end. That end is the scale that happens when you combine the consumer insight you get from social media with the massive reach available via paid advertising (on any channel, not just social). 

And the goal is to effectively invest those advertising dollars to generate the highest results -- sales, new customers, loyalty and more. We are at a turning point today. I see it in all my conversations with clients (they typically understand the larger play here) and potential clients (many of which are deciding between a unified solution that makes it possible to organize, optimize and repeat to drive maximum ROI and the next hot tool without a proven track record). Brands that organize internally and get serious about their publishing efforts (free and paid, conversations and ads) and their data will continue to succeed. Others, who look to third parties to check the box and/or do it all, will lose.