Monday, January 19, 2009

Free advertising.

As it goes, nothing comes for free (except Papa John's dessert on the chain's birthday. YUM.), but the use of social networking certainly does stretch the dollar when it comes to reach and ROI. As Scott said on our board this week, it's the digitized version of word-of-mouth advertising...and as many of us know from being consumers ourselves, the very best form of advertising is an endorsement from a friend. 

The most important point from this week's discussion, however, is the necessity of choosing the right digital medium for the target audience. I wouldn't choose Facebook as a marketing tool for my B2B campaign and I'd be reticent to use an abundance of digital media to certain psychographics within the Southeastern region, where I work every day. I regularly do presentation consulting with brilliant professionals (most in the Baby Boomer generation) who have gone so far as to say, "If you tell me to turn that computer on, I probably couldn't do it." That's fine...that's why I get business, but I can't think of one of the mediums we discussed this week that would be an effective way to reach that member of my target audience. 

How do you respond in the workplace to those who are less tech savvy and underestimate the power of the digital marketplace?

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