Don't Understand Social Media? Take a Look...

After reading my typical daily blogs (Seth's Blog, BrandExtract, Propagation Planning, etc.) I stumbled upon a few noteworthy things; two of which directly correlate to the other.

Advertising Age printed an article by Matt Jones entitled, "Why I Hate Social Media." Before opening the link, I knew I would disagree. Why? Because social media is awesome. It opens new gateways to connecting with brands, consumers and corporations than ever. Not to mention, it gives advertising agencies and "normal" people an option to stretch their creative legs and find other ways to express themselves and their brand.

In Jones' article, he tends to focus on the "media" part of social media, not the "social" part, where it should be focused. He says that many companies who are using social media, are using it to replace Web sites and advertisements.

Truthfully, I don't know many companies that have gotten rid of their campaigns completely and simply used Twitter to market a new item. What I do see, is a lot of companies utilizing social media and adding it to their already growing campaigns. It also gives consumers the option to interact more with the company and give feedback. Like I said, it's the "social" part of social media that makes it so important.

The second interesting item I found was a video, Social Media in Plain English, created by Commoncraft.com. This video illustrates the power social media has.



So, Matt Jones, I ask you, why should we ignore social media?