November 2008 Archives

When considering social media and marketing applications, a lot of us focus on the content--a YouTube video or a blog post--or an online place where people congregate--like Facebook. That makes sense, too, given the way we behave in the real world: As marketers, we create content and then put it in places with lots of traffic, where it will get seen.

There's another aspect of social media, and more correctly of the Social Web itself, that I believe is much more important. To be sure, content is important: You need to say, do, or show something if you want to participate in a conversation. And true as well, it would be great if others joined with you. "But wait," as we say in marketing, "there's more."

Back from Ad Tech in New York last week. Another excellent show, as always (disclosure: I am a prior Ad Tech Advisory Board member). Most notable for me was the extent to which savvy brand managers are now adopting and using social media.