Advertising or advice?

Writer's note; I am now writing much more professionally than I have been so sometimes I may stray from the personal and "double dip" into the professional if that is OK with you.








Ahh…Don Draper. Now he was an Ad man.

Remember those days?

Imagine not having a clue what your brand stood for? What your brand meant? Hell, you probably didn’t even know your business was a brand. You walked into the “Ad Exec’s” office and he sold you a concept. It was creative. It made sense.

Then…the magic happens. He puts his creative team on the job. Slick, well produced TV ads. The voice of God radio ads. Full page layouts in the daily newspaper. And…they worked. People actually came into your business and wanted to use your product or service because of the advertising.

Let’s fast forward to now.

Those ads don’t work as well do they?

How come?

Because we no longer believe their claims, propositions, promises or customer testimonials. They became cliche and contrived. They were no longer relevant.

Who do you trust now? Your friend or your ad man? Do you want advertisements or advice?

This is where social media marketing comes in. Social media has conversations…not sales pitches. It focuses on communities…not customers. Creates value based loyalty…not price based transactions.

Don’t get me wrong…you still build a brand by mass media…but you build the why behind the brand with social media.

Ahhh…but which social media platform do you use and how do you use it?

Don’t know…haven’t had a conversation with you about your community yet. Once I do…I will know which way to go.