brand marketing blog

2009 has been a rollercoaster ride for marketers that are involved in web 2.0 and social media integration. What amazes me is just how compressed and fast-moving the product lifecycle in this space has become.

Many traditional marketing media have taken many years to evolve and mature, but social media is in the superfast lane and we now measure major changes in weeks or maybe just a few months. Today there are so many new social networking platforms available for business marketing compared to a year ago, that it’s hard to keep up, let alone participate effectively.

The holidays are a great opportunity for us to step back from the social media marketing coalface and reassess which of the myriad of tools is delivering value. My regular platforms are blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn and FaceBook and I’ll definitely be reviewing the level of involvement that each of these deserves in 2010.

Each of them certainly does have some inherent value, but I’ve realised that to get a decent return, you need to participate on a regular and active basis. Maybe you should make a list of the platforms you are involved in and rate them as follows:

* Amount of time each one requires to participate effectively
* Potential value and ROI if you participate effectively
* How much time you can afford to commit to social media in general

Once you have an objective rating system you can apply the old 80/20 rule - select the platform/s that will potentially produce the best return for the least effort and then go hard at it/them. I know that I’m going to be doing just this exercise, and would be keen to hear how you get on with your rating and re-evaluation exercise.