May '09—Red Carpet Marketing Column

There is no doubt that social networking has its place for promoting ANY person, brand or industry. According to Alexa, a web ranking site, YouTube is the #3 website; FaceBook is #4 and MySpace (yes, there are still those can’t quite break away from it) is #10. Another up and coming social networking site is hi5 already at #23. And Twitter, the fastest growing site is #39 as of this date.

Each of these sites has hundreds of thousands of profile pages, fan pages, friends, videos and event invites that go out every day. In almost all cases, these features are FREE making them a promoters’ paradise.

But I just want to remind those who exclusively use this method for marketing that while it can be HIGHLY successful, it’s not the norm. As they say in diet commercials “Results Not Typical”.

While many medium to large organizations now dedicate at least one to two employees or interns to basic marketing on social networking sites, these companies also always subscribe to integrated marketing to build their brand awareness. Search Engine Optimization and online affiliate marketing help too, but again, the big picture of marketing is about the size of Disney World!

From branding to packaging to web sites to advertising to partnering to sponsorships and public and community relations, marketing can be exhaustive and expensive when a company is trying to cut through the clutter. It’s the reason why Chief Marketing Offices, senior marketing executives and marketing consultants make a nice living. Marketing IS a science, not an art. The creative, pretty pictures and the repetitive posting online are just fun extras.

Quantifying any marketing program is what clients want since budgets are so tight. And closed loop marketing is the Holy Grail. When you can prove that Action A of your marketing program led to Action B which resulted in better brand awareness or more revenue, you are a marketer that clients will want. Pretty Artwork will not get you very far.

In short, make sure you do everything right for your clients. If you or your firm cannot do it all, partner with another company to ensure the clients’ satisfaction.

Mary Ann McQueen Butcher aka “Mary Ann Butcher” on both Facebook and Twitter

www.RedCarpetMarketing.com

info@LVRedCarpetcom

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Red Carpet Marketing, LLC is a full service media, marketing, advertising, public relations and promotional services company. It targets small to medium sized companies in need of marketing expertise; specifically the companies that cannot afford a marketing department, a publicist or an agency.

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