Improper use of social networking
A planner needs to see social networking as both a tactic and a strategy, and they need to know the difference between the two. Our industry is to blame for the ease with which the two can be confused. We are a business obsessed with finding the next eponym. Google, iPod, Facebook, and Twitter are all names of companies that provide services or enable action where that service or action has become named after the provider (e.g., "to Google").
Media planners can fall into the trap of thinking that only a particular vehicle represents the strategy of social networking because of how closely one is associated with the other. This can lead to overlooking, or forsaking entirely, different ways to enter communities. Consider Lotame and SocialVibe. Neither of them is, in and of themselves, a "social networking" property. Rather, they provide social network entry opportunities for advertisers.
Skittles.com's relaunch of its website a couple months back turned the homepage into giant virtual megaphone broadcasting any mention of the Skittle brand taking place over the web or through Twitter. By day two, it had turned into a Skittles complaint free-for-all, and the Twitter feed was disconnected from the page. This is an example of mistaking social media tactics for a social media strategy.
I've heard Peter Shankman, founder and CEO of the Geekfactory and Help a Reporter Out, put it this way: "There's Twitter, then there's Twittering. Two separate things. Twittering will survive. Twitter? Not sure." The distinction is important, and helps to demonstrate the difference between tactic and strategy.
