Mitch Joel, journalist, publicist, president of Twist Image - a digital marketing agency - and author of the book Six Pixels of Separation, elaborates on the need for marketers to embrace the paradigm-shift afforded by social media tools.
Joel contends that marketing will never be the same again, and that not only do marketers need to learn to experiment with social media tools as channels through which to ply their trade, but to also enrich and augment their traditional methods through them.
Social media has connected people in ways that they couldn’t have dreamed of before. This presents a huge opportunity for marketers to apply their existing tactics towards a whole new avenue of communication, starting real, meaningful conversations with real people who are willing to be engaged – but only if you make the effort to meet them on their terms.
According to Joel, what marketers need to do is invest a little time and energy into developing their social media presence, and also be prepared to take risks. If they choose to enter the social media sphere, there’s no going back. Indeed, Joel contends that there really is no choice here; in order to keep going forward with their marketing efforts, marketers are necessarily going to need to forget about going back.
And in order to forget about going back, they’re going to need to take a leaf (and a risk) from Hernan Cortes – and burn their boats.
Abandon the tactics of the past, and embrace the strategies of the future.
itbusiness.ca's Brian Jackson recently chatted with Joel and his interview is available online here.
Prashanth Gopalan
Prashanth Gopalan is a freelance blogger based out of Waterloo and Toronto. When not blogging obsessively on Techvibes, he can be found opining on politics, current affairs, history, economics, business and everything in-between. Feel free to connect with him and drop him a line. He doesn't bite (at least not since he was three).
