Is Social Media Phasing Out Traditional Marketing?

As you all know, social media continues to break all the traditional rules in marketing and emphasizes the importance of brands interacting with their consumers. Larger companies, such as Mazda, understand that most of their demographic is young, internet savvy and find most of their news on sites like Digg. If this is the case, what’s happening to traditional media? Newspapers are slowly disappearing, are magazines next?

The obvious answer as to why traditional marketing is lagging is due to the change in consumer behavior. People are no longer combing through the pages of once popular newspapers and magazines for their information. The real-time aspect alone makes newspapers and magazines outdated the second they hit the shelves. It no longer makes sense to take out 1-2 page ads in the New York Times because no one is going to see it. By redistributing a bulk of their marketing dollars to social media, traditional marketing companies are eager to embark on new campaigns and strategic efforts.

We can all agree that since more and more social networks are proving successful in social media marketing, everyone wants to integrate their brand into this space. Yes, the power of social media is stronger than ever, but companies are still trying to figure out how to couple this beast with traditional marketing strategies. The best example of a company’s successful transition from traditional to social is Pepsi. They made headlines a couple months back for pulling their name from the Super Bowl commercial lineup. Instead of spending the $20 million on a few 30 second spots, they decided to invest in the money into Pepsi’s Refresh Project. This groundbreaking endeavor by Pepsi utilizes social media by allowing prospective participants to pitch their ideas on how to improve their community and the world. Pepsi then allows users to vote the project up and rewards those with the most votes cash to start their new endeavor. By reconnecting with the community and involving users to participate in this project, Pepsi is reestablishing their brand as caring, innovative and fun.

Some skeptics feel that social media doesn’t have the viable ROI that traditional marketing once had. They argue that with all the buzz around social media, companies are blindly spending their money on social media campaigns that promise little to no ROI. However some companies have proved this theory wrong. Larger corporations like Dell, who made $6.5 million dollars over two years via Twitter. Or Lenovo, another popular computer manufacturer that saved over 20% in call center reduction after building a web community assisting in customer service requests. Yes, these are only two examples, but they remind us that social media marketing works and is here to stay.