Social Media Marketing - Is Traditional Marketing Dead?

One of the big discussions which goes on between many Network Marketers relates to whether they should move away from traditional marketing and move all their efforts to Social Media.

Conversely, some wonder whether Social Media is just a fad and ask whether all the time and effort they put into it is going to be wasted!

Let’s tackle the “fad” bit first. Social Media is absolutely NOT a fad. Human beings have always been social since time immemorial and media is determined as a means of mass communication. The only difference these days is that humans connecting with other humans is often done online. Online Social Media isn’t going to go away although it will very likely evolve or morph into something even more techie over time.

So then, back to traditional marketing – the face to face stuff, talking to people on the phone, direct mail, events, presentations and so on. NO! It’s not even remotely dead. People will always talk to people. People will always want to go to events. All that has changed is that with the internet we have another channel for reaching multiple people at one time. It makes coordinating events quick and easy too.

How much of your marketing do you think you should do online and how much using traditional methods?  Personally, I don’t think there’s any hard and fast rule. Some people have great success using traditional methods; some couldn’t set up a Social Media account to save their lives. Others aren’t great at face to face connection but are masters of their art when communicating online.

The best question each Network Marketer can ask themselves is how they can effectively communicate with the largest number of people to achieve their goals.

Another determining factor absolutely should be your target market. If you’re marketing to the Baby Boomers, for example, they still love hard copy traditional marketing and in person meetings. Their Social Media channel of choice is still Facebook, by and large. However, if your target market is the 20 – 30 age group, they don’t tend to read hard copy but love the fast moving Social Media channels such as TicTok and Instagram, so these are the areas you should use to market to this age group.

The pros of traditional marketing are:

• ·         It’s permanent
• ·         It’s memorable
• ·         It’s impactful
• ·         The cons are:

·  There’s no direct interaction with the customer (if using written material)

• ·         It’s more expensive
• ·         The impact is difficult to measure

The Pros of Social Media Marketing are:

• ·         It’s makes targeting your ideal market much easier
• ·         It’s easier to measure your campaigns
• ·         There are many more options for engagement

The Cons are:

·  Social Media channels are constantly evolving – what works one day, may not the next

• ·         Marketing ads can be seen to be annoying
• ·         It is a less permanent method of advertising.