SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social media practices and issues.
This week, we asked: Do you tie your social media marketing efforts into your traditional marketing campaigns?
- Sometimes: 44.3%
- Always: 41.61%
- My brand doesn’t use social media marketing: 6.71%
- Never: 4.7%
- My brand doesn’t use traditional marketing: 2.68%
Everyone hates organizational silos. They poison innovation, fuel miscommunication and hamper efficiency. You will never* hear your boss say, “What this department needs is become more insular and secretive — only when we’ve destroyed all semblance of coordination with the rest of the company will we really start to perform at out best.”
Marketing silos can be just as dangerous. If all your company’s marketing is all done in complete isolation, you’re not only duplicating effort, you’re potentially weakening your brand with mixed messages and definitely missing out on ways to improve targeting and deepen customer engagement.
Good news, everyone! It looks like more than 2 in 5 SmartBrief on Social Media readers feel the same way — since they say they always find ways to link their social media marketing with their traditional campaigns. And an additional 40% say they sometimes coordinate their marketing efforts. Fewer than 5% say they never bother at all.
In practice, it may not always make sense to fully integrate social and traditional marketing for every campaign. Certain campaigns may only work properly in one medium or another, or perhaps technological or budgetary limitations make it difficult to roll everything into one ubercampaign. What’s most important isn’t whether or not you can always achieve perfect alignment; it’s whether or not you’re taking integration into account during the planning process. Are you looking for ways to coordinate and then branching out as your campaign needs dictate? Or are you working in complete isolation, not knowing or caring what the rest of your organization is doing? Because if you’re not even looking for ways to use social and traditional marketing in tandem, you’re just leaving money on the table.
How are you making social media and traditional marketing work together at your organization?
*If you ever do hear your boss say this, just go ahead and quit on the spot. The company’s not going to be around much longer. You might as well beat the rush.