Is social media all that?

There’s a lot of hand wringing about whether the “C-suite” (fancy jargon term for the higher ups in a corporation) is on social media.  Does it matter? Does the CEO have to be on social media for it to be worthwhile? The answer is no.  For social media to matter it has to be the conduit to your audience or your supporters.

Say for instance you are the CEO of a kid’s cereal manufacturer. You advertise your highly sweetened concoction on children’s shows on Saturday morning. Do you also have to watch those shows, or even those TV channels? No! Of course not. Presumably, your marketing department did some research and found that a certain percentage of your target audience watches shows and therefore if you advertise your cereal there, those kids will be begging their parental units to buy it for them.

Social media is not for everyone. But that does not mean it is not effective in reaching some people. It is more effective for certain applications and among certain demographics. This is why social media is part of the arsenal in your marketing mix.

Let me emphasize again: social media is part of the marketing mix. There is more to marketing communications than social media, and if your chief executive is not tweeting or blogging or Facebooking, that is OK.