Social media should not replace Marketing Strategy

Facebook is not a marketing strategy. Nor is a strong following on Twitter. Sure it’s great customer engagement and promotion for your business, but it doesn’t replace your overall marketing strategy. Social media should integrate with your marketing strategy to support and enhance your overall strategic goals, objectives and activities.

In a world where everyone is pushing social– you’d think sometimes that it’s the only marketing tool available. A lot of marketers are guilty of falling in love with the technology at the detriment of strategy and other tried and testing activities that deliver results which can be more successful when integrated with social and online.

Marketers everywhere, and especially B2B marketers , can often struggle with the question of how to add social media on top of their other marketing activities. However social media should be seen as another marketing tool that is now available to communicate with customers. It shouldn’t be an on top add-on.

Marketers need to approach social media as an effective communication channel within a larger, integrated marketing strategy that is focused building customer interaction and relationships.

If you are struggling to integrate social media into your overall marketing strategy, you’re not alone. A recent survey conducted by CMO Council looked into what results marketers and consumers expect from a brand's Facebook page. From a company point of view, they are currently struggling to integrate it fully into their marketing strategy with 34 per cent saying that while they've developed strategies which include social media, it still isn't fully integrated into their strategies.

A summary of the survey found that overall 68 per cent of brands struggle to integrate social media into marketing strategies.

No one media is absolute or almighty, they all depend on each other for support, to promote and to deliver customers to your business.

Good marketing strategies involve a balance of traditional strategies while relying on technological advances and new customer engagement tools to ensure the best form of communication possible to existing and potential customers.

Icon Visual Marketing are a full service marketing agency, specialising in creating and executing integrated marketing strategies and plans. We love social too, but we recommend and use it as a part of your overall marketing strategy, not AS your actual marketing strategy.