Old and New

For the past several weeks I have been reading and experimenting extensively with social media and networking but in fairness still feel like I have only glanced at the surface. Twitter still confuses me but I have recently seen some uses that had not occurred to me previously. In addition, it is not lost on me that I do read a lot of articles that are “tweeted” so it had proven to be a useable resource.

For the most part I think that I am getting a pretty decent understanding of everything else I have looked into – at least as social networking tools. My next challenge is to determine how linking these new technologies with traditional marketing and advertising vehicles can be successful. Last week I was forwarded this great clip all about social media.
It clearly illustrates how powerful the reach of new media is. Without doubt, there has been a quantum shift in how the world communicates and how news, information and knowledge in general is given and found.

However, I believe that the new advertising paradigm must integrate old with new. In the same way the email changed the way we communicate, the true value has been in augmenting verbal communication – not replacing it.
My central question still revolves around effectiveness – the video does not address this. With the mass of information available, are we able to penetrate past what an individual might be looking for or may be consciously interested in? The video referred to earlier is a fascinating collection of statistics but all pertain to users and reach. What are the statistics on sales (and I don’t mean internet advertising revenues which we know are rising)?

As a very simple example, if I log onto a retail site looking to buy pencils, will the ad or pop up for pens engage me enough that I would click through on the link to find out more? If so, is this predictable? I know that there are click through statistics but do we have enough data to predict the impact of ads and/ or information available in the same way we can predict more traditional media like direct mail? Who is looking, how closely are they looking and what percentage of those looking at advertising vehicles are buying?

In the end, as we continue to change, finding the way to combine old with new is the key. I was reminded about the effectiveness of old via a Wall Street Journal article - ironically tweeted by one of the people I follow. It is worth reading.

Cheers and have a great day,
George