7 things social media can't do

Great article. Social media can do a lot of good given the right investment level, but it can't fix the appeal or success of your brand without the right value proposition or marketing strategy behind it.

Dear Ms.Zimmerman,

Quite a view! It was really nice to go through your thoughts on social media.

I do have some perspective, based upon my little social (media) experience.

1] Social media can't substitute for marketing strategy.
Social media {a tool} to use it or not is decided during Strategizing [marketing strategy - a process]. Both are totally different [tool and process] and so there is no question of substitution.

2] Social media can't work without organization alignment.
I don't recall a thing which can work-out without organization alignment. Could you kind enought to let me know of any?.

3] Social media can't change the inherent popularity, appeal, or success of your brand.
Going by the heading, as stated above, social media sure can change popularity [have experience live example: Jet airway(India) pilots declared strike, all flights got canceled and down went its popularity with negative marketing(but still there was high buzz as compared to other airlines). After a week, pilots rejoined & jet airways initiated work with heavy discounts, this time all the negative news/ demarketing helped to get best response of the year. And all these ups n downs were seen on Social Media [facebook/ buzz/ orkut etc]

And about the can & can't, I suppose, its too early to say anything!

Thanks for the encouraging article.

Hiren

Agree with your points. Social Media really is just part of the next version of how we are interacting online, and the reason it's so explosive is because so many more people are interacting online. And just like a company adding a Website didn't change people's businesses over night, neither will Social Media.

Appreciate this article. I will tweet it to my audience.
As I frequently say, we are a few generations away from digital marketing fully replacing people sitting across the room and talking about something. In fact, one of my theories is that those new companies on the block who focus only on "as-as-service” and cloud will only really become successful and established when they add the more "old fashioned" process to their marketing and sales repertoire.
Peter O'Neill, VP, Forrester Research

Good stuff, Denise. Wise & well said.

You are totally correct.
Social media cannot do everything for you, you have to do for yourself. Using it as a vehicle to get where you need to go is fine, but you have to be the one to step on the peddle and give it gas.

Totally agree with your comment and the articles. Many believe that if you build a web site or a face book page they will come. The web and social media are wonderful tools but just as too little information is not good so too is too much information.

It's most refreshing and welcomed to read a perspective that doesn't promote one discipline over the other. Denise....get's it!
It's all about engaging in a dialogue with customer whenever and wherever you may meet up with them.

MAN, I'm tired of lists. I know lists are supposed to sell, but this horse has gone beyond being beaten to death; it has been beaten into dog food.

I no longer read any advice given in list format. I think it has become a crutch.

Thanks for this excellent article.

It's important that you stress that social media is not a substitute for marketing.
Marketing, even in social media should start with targeting, value proposition and positioning.
What the social web enables is the ability to target communities i.e people that connect and write about a specific center of interest, whether is be: Moms, Gamers, Green Tech expert, Seniors, Beauty addicts.

Where brand should start is building marketing strategies and programs for these different audience, where it make sense.

As for the #of twitter/facebook fans. It also really depend who these people are.
If you're an High tech vendor selling 6 figures service package, 500 fans with most of them CIO's of Fortune 2000 companies could be a huge success.

Best and thanks again