Get yer Facebook Marketing Here. Tuppence a go...
 Mark Schaefer, marketing consultant par excellence, points to the efforts of a "local news and media" company's efforts to add a new revenue stream. The plan is to create a "cookie cutter" Social Media marketing strategy and take it out to the market, offering to create blog posts, tweets and what-not. This has got Mark somewhat excited, but not in a good way! And I can see his point.
From the description and Mark's passion about his dislike for this approach it does appear to be a highly commoditized offering, and indeed this may be the case. It's a one-size-fits-all solution, something that the ex-consultant in me is extremely wary of. But let's not be so quick to dismiss this. It could be servicing a valuable need.
When I was consulting a few years ago I had clients who just wanted the problem of producing website content out of their hands. They were happy to take whatever I was syndicating that month, some were happy to present it as a "guest columnist", a few were even happy for me to send it to their clients on their behalf. The itch they needed scratching was to do something, and this basic service suited their needs.
Within that set of clients there were some who started to ask questions (or at least answer some of the probing ones I was asking!) Custom content started to emerge, different presentation styles, their own staff were helped to form articles. As their level of sophistication grew so they wanted more from me.
So as the sophisticated marketeer with an understanding of marketing using social media it is easy to scoff at this idea (and the other manufacturing oriented models that will emerge). What we might forget is there are less knowledgeable people who just want to give it a go and this will suit that need. And what we then need to do is be ready to start picking up the clients who will emerge who want to go to the next level.
This isn't rocket science - this is bog standard market evolution. Move from the early adopters to the mass market and specialisation sinks to commoditisation. Maybe the real surprise is why it hasn't happened earlier.
Previously on this blog...
the global leader in Contact Center Consolidation 2.0
2.0 has become a meaningless addition to already poor tag lines.
A dozen beautiful images of Saturn
Wired presents a dozen of the best images from the Cassini mission
Setting up shop in a new country: beyond the website
Building a website for multiple languages is not just about translation. It is a critical business decision that has to be taken carefully.
Why call centre staff deserve your respect
If call centre staff set the first impression for your business, why do we treat them so badly?
Becoming a Specialist? A hard decision to make ...
Specialising requires hard strategic decisions to be made about your business.
When good people move on
Losing a member of staff to another company is not necessarily a bad thing
The quest for quality in Agile Software Development
Why quality assurance remains a central part of project management, regardless of the use of Agile methods
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