It’s the awkward moment we’ve all had. Your friends throw you a birthday party and invite all of your friends…work friends, school friends, family friends, etc. They’re all there. Together. George Costanza knows what I’m talking about. Worlds are colliding.
Fortunately, our marketing efforts don’t have to result in such an awkward collision. There are seamless and simple ways to integrate social media into traditional media campaigns. These ideas are basic, but they can become the spark to fuel further integration and interaction between the two marketing worlds that should never be far apart.
Add a hashtag. Whether it’s an event, sales promotion or awareness-building campaign, you can always customize a hashtag specific to the campaign and throw it onto all of your traditional media pieces to generate social media buzz. Add it to your mailers, your ad placements, and your TV spots. It doesn’t cost any more than you’re already spending and it lets the world know that you are a part of the Twitter community. It can also generate discussion about the campaign—if you monitor your online activity well, you will be able to enter into the conversation, offering interactions of value with your target audience.
Post it to Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc. Whatever you’re pushing out into the traditional marketing space, repurpose it for your social networks. Generate conversation on your social media sites by telling people what you’re doing and asking for their input. But remember, don’t be salesy, this isn’t the medium for that. For example, if you’re shooting a TV or radio spot, take behind-the-scenes pictures of the production and post it to Facebook. It creates a social element to what you are already doing and will spark interest, not to mention help develop your brand identity online.
Add social icons to everything. Email, direct mail pieces, company swag, brochures, etc.…place your social icons on all of it to let everyone know that you are present online. Awareness is half the battle of social media engagement.
Blog about it. Whatever you are pushing using traditional marketing mediums, blog about it. Is there an event you’re trying to promote? Blog about it before, or give a recap of the event after the fact to show your online followers what you’re up to. Include video and photos to enhance your post. Regardless of what it is you’re selling or promoting, you can take a soft-sale, thought-leadership approach and put it onto your blog to generate awareness and establish credibility.
Whether you like it or not, the integrated marketing party is raging. You can either segment yourself and awkwardly push your traditional and social media marketing efforts to different sides of the room, eliminating any interaction, or you can allow them to develop a close, healthy relationship that will only improve your company’s overall marketing success.