Some companies today are under the false impression that social media is a marketer’s dream come true. Not so much. Don’t get me wrong: this isn’t a letter devoted to bashing social media channels. That would be silly considering my business includes a company that develops Internet sites, Checkerboard Strategic Web Development, which is always hard at work creating web sites that utilize social media.
While I realize that everyone, including myself, needs to learn how to promote their business via the social media arena, publicity will still kick social media’s butt every time. Some businesses think it’s a big deal when they get their social media posts out to a few thousand followers. I’d like to point out that Sunday morning public affairs shows have bigger audiences than that. Our publicity clients would skin us alive if we provided them with these puny off-hour appearances. Publicity is mass media; even the small audiences are huge compared to most other promotional channels, including social media. I would charge 10 times what I do now if PR was valued by the marketplace the way it should be. But this is the real world, and like I said, most companies don’t give product publicity the time of day. The smart ones do, though. PR is cheap, and for many of our clients it works better than any other promotional channel they’re using.
If you’re using social media networks to promote your product, that’s great. But why aren’t you using publicity as well? It’s the only true way to capture the power of mass media. Call us today at 952-697-5269 to talk about getting your product in the news.
