Every advertising seminar we attend these days is abuzz with discussions of social media.
Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr…the tools abound. But how do we use them?
The focus continues to be on the social media tools themselves and NOT on the strategy behind them. This is a real mistake. Merrick Towle Communications constantly hears clients say they need a social media proposal. Maybe they do. Maybe they don’t. How do we decide?

We start by figuring out what the business objective is for the client. Then we develop a strategy and a creative campaign designed to meet the client’s goals. Lastly, we determine the particular set of tools that best fit the strategy and campaign. Perhaps one set of tools will be a social media campaign. But, how do we decide when to explore this avenue?

Social media sites were born out of a desire for people to communicate with each other on topics of shared interest. How can we leverage this as marketers? Certainly NOT by throwing ads at their users. Instead, we can use social media tools to create a dialogue with our prospective customers. We can find ways for our loyal residents to tell others about why they love living in our clients’ apartment buildings. Talk with energy users to figure out how to engage in energy reduction. Ask potential users what they want in a product so our clients can give it to them. Merrick Towle has created a team of folks who are well-versed in social media tools. Bring us your business objective and see if social marketing might help.

by Amy Weedon, Account Planner, aweedon@merricktowle.com