Do you have a social media strategy?

“So what about Twitter?” “What’s all this social media stuff anyway?” “I know I should be thinking about it, but I don’t know exactly what I should do about it.” I do a lot of speaking engagements about digital branding and social media, and I get asked a LOT about social media. Last week, I facilitated a social media scan for a group of LIMRA executives. The workshop allowed participants to consider opportunities they might want to take advantage of to truly engage with their consumer base in a meaningful way. It goes much deeper than the media hype Facebook and Twitter are getting.

On Friday, April 17, Oprah joined Twitter and sent her first tweet to national television. This was right around the same time that Ashton Kutcher got 1 million followers of him on Twitter (surpassing CNN), so she had Ashton as a (remote) guest. The show represented a turning point for many social media advocates; they felt that social media had come of age and would now surpass “old fashioned” (read “mainstream”) media alternatives as THE way to communicate.

While there are certainly benefits to Twitter, social media advocates need to understand that it will simply add to the mix of available media options. I’m not saying Twitter won’t be a game changer. I think it will. But I don’t think it will take the place of traditional media… It will just blend into the mix.

I’ve been in marketing long enough to see the tremendous changes that have taken place in the last 20 years. At one point in my career, I had to make a case to upper management as to why my marketing plan should include cable as part of my media buying. Upper management argued, “Why the hell would we want to entertain our TV dollars away from network TV?” I had created an entire presentation on how “It’s profitable, it reaches my primary target audience, it stretches our TV ad dollars.” Anyone in marketing today would think that building such a presentation is absurd; of course, you must have cable as part of your TV mix. But back then, it was a struggle to convince others of this way of thinking! Today, I’m sure there are brand managers contemplating why they shouldn’t just eliminate their network TV purchase altogether.

The same evolution will occur with social networks. While it’s a new thing for everyone to talk about, monitor, and watch these days among marketers, I see a day in the future when social media will be just another tool in a marketer’s toolbelt, just like that “wire” is now just another line. item in a vendor’s advertising budget. We will reach a day when marketers cannot imagine developing a campaign without at least considering how their brand, or new product or service offering could be expressed digitally through a variety of social media options.

In the end, it all comes down to strategies to reach your primary target audience. If you’re trying to reach people ages 18-34, you better have a social media strategy, because, as I pointed out in a recent blog post, according to a Harris Interactive research study from March 31-July 1 April, three quarters of that audience has some kind of presence on social media (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter). But if your target is the aging Baby Boomer, less than 25% have a social media presence and only 5% of all people are on Twitter.