Digital Marketing And Social Media PR – The Future Buzz

I recall a situation in 2007 (while in the consulting space) when most businesses were barely scratching the surface with digital marketing. The story goes like this: one of my clients, a national brand that is a household name was reticent to participate in social.

There’s a huge elephant in the room for marketing and PR pros: many stop short at measuring KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) of their social marketing efforts, such as number of followers / fans or engagement with their communities.

If you’re excited by data, you’re doing it right. Obviously I joined the Google Analytics team because I believe that statement (and am passionate about the product).

The “web is dead” linkbait discussions are back, spurred in part by recent IPO news but also by various tech pundits (ironically enough, the discussions started at sites on the open web).

In the past year, social media was the vehicle that drove several high-profile careers off a cliff. The common thread in all of these social media meltdowns is that the “person” took the wheel and the “professional” took the back seat.

Must we go through this every year? Social media is still not new. It wasn’t new last year. Or the year before. In fact, it hasn’t been new for well over a decade. The web was social from day one, even if the term was popularized later on.