I’ve come across a reoccurring theme in several blogs recently regarding social media – social media is really nothing new nor does it change the game as much as we give it credit to. I totally agree with this. Sure, it’s glamorous and exciting and technically new but the concept has actually been around forever and marketers do not need to change their all around thinking nor their game plan all together when it comes to social media.

People are giving social media credit for changing the way that things work in the marketing world. It’s being said that consumers are conversing on these platforms and you, as a company, now need to reach them on a personal and relevant level on the same platforms in order to earn their trust and respect. Wasn’t that how it’s always been?? This was especially noted in a blog post by Mark Schaefer, The Social Web: New Battlefield, Same War. Mark notes that marketing has always been based on this system of meritocracy. This is nothing new. Social media is just a new channel to market through using the same principles that have been around forever.

Also, this idea of people talking about products/services, providing reviews and recommendations, and participating in either positive or negative word of mouth is not new. The new platform to do this on (social media) has just expanded the reach of these messages and provides documentation since these conversations transpire via visible instant messages, newsfeeds, Tweets, Facebook posts, etc (which is actually great for companies/organizations because they can monitor what is being said). According to an article by Business Week, social media has just taken word of mouth marketing digital, nothing more, nothing less.

All in all social media is really not that much of a foreign concept and it does not change things as much as some people claim. Given all of this, it should not require that much of a change in thinking in order to perceive social media marketing as familiar and doable for your company/organization.

While the concept behind it is not new, social media itself does provide something new and exciting: opportunity. As usual it’s all about perception and how we look at things. If we view social media as this scary intimidating monster than that is what it’s going to be, but if you look at it as the same phenomenon that’s been going on all along just in a new playing field than that’s really all it is. Read this interesting post by Seth Godin on why some people may still be resistant to embracing this change. Social media marketing is a process you learn as you go along and you aren’t going to get anywhere until you actually just jump in. The opportunity is here and now is the time to start finding your place in the realm of social media. It is not the foreign land you may perceive it to be.