-Don B @donbart

-Don B @donbart

-Don B @donbart

Look at “traditional” PR – say you have a client product to launch and you need to get it in the news and in front of a certain amount of customers within 6 weeks.

Swing that over to its most basic equivalent using social media. You combine Twitter and blogger outreach to spread the message along with a social media news release. You connect with the power players on Digg, Reddit, Yahoo Buzz, etc, to hit front page/popular submissions. You get the desired effect in 6 weeks as well (maybe even less, given the outreach).

Isn't this a campaign within a certain timescale?

Look at “traditional” PR – say you have a client product to launch and you need to get it in the news and in front of a certain amount of customers within 6 weeks.

Swing that over to its most basic equivalent using social media. You combine Twitter and blogger outreach to spread the message along with a social media news release. You connect with the power players on Digg, Reddit, Yahoo Buzz, etc, to hit front page/popular submissions. You get the desired effect in 6 weeks as well (maybe even less, given the outreach).

Isn't this a campaign within a certain timescale?

With regards to marketing and promotions, I think this notion that consumers are fed up with marketing and will revolt violently against campaigns in our new sandbox is naive. Sure, we'll gripe and moan, but we always do. But we'll still buy stuff, and we'll buy more of it thanks to the ads we see on social platforms — whether you call them ads, campaigns, or anything else.

It's an interesting discussion and like you I think it is too early. However, product promotions going forward might be though as posing questions to the targeted communities where conversations and feedback will be garnered. I do also think that social media needs to be a long-term adopted strategy but there is also the opportunity for focused vertical conversational strategies that are geared toward bringing attention, reaction and response to specific topics or campaigns. If people give a marketer permission to receive the campaign then why could there not be campaigns?

To Bernoff's point, I think the beach-head is much easier to manage when one is participating in social media rather than just busting on the scene with a campaign where the tactic is completely interuptive and spam-like.

What's your take?

Here's my take: You can end campaigns within the social media space. However, you need to assure your users and customers that you are changing it into something else. The dialogue needs to be open in order for you effectively pull this off.

It’s an interesting discussion and like you I think it is too early. However, product promotions going forward might be though as posing questions to the targeted communities where conversations and feedback will be garnered. I do also think that social media needs to be a long-term adopted strategy but there is also the opportunity for focused vertical conversational strategies that are geared toward bringing attention, reaction and response to specific topics or campaigns. If people give a marketer permission to receive the campaign then why could there not be campaigns?

To Bernoff’s point, I think the beach-head is much easier to manage when one is participating in social media rather than just busting on the scene with a campaign where the tactic is completely interuptive and spam-like.

What’s your take?

With regards to marketing and promotions, I think this notion that consumers are fed up with marketing and will revolt violently against campaigns in our new sandbox is naive. Sure, we'll gripe and moan, but we always do. But we'll still buy stuff, and we'll buy more of it thanks to the ads we see on social platforms — whether you call them ads, campaigns, or anything else.