Conformity stinks. No one really likes to be one of the pack, we all want to be a Lance Armstrong or Tiger Woods. That’s why we find unique things about ourselves and highlight them in our daily actions. You know, to be different and cool.
On a conformity continuum, from 1 being high school cheerleaders to 10 being the goth kids (which is kind of ironic because, lets face it, they ended up all the same), I consider myself a 7 or 8. I like to be different because there are things that are unique about me, but I don’t rub it in people’s faces or go out of my way to avoid doing what other people do. But sometimes, conformity is absolutely necessary. Case and point: the Twitter Revolution.
A year or two ago, when I first heard about Twitter, I immediately hated it. I already had a facebook, why the heck did other people need a different platform just to see my status? It made no sense! I disliked it even more when I discovered that businesses and corporations were slowly ebbing into using it for marketing. Great, now I can see that my friend Joey tried fried squirrel for lunch and that JcPenney is having a one-time only blowout sale all at the same time! Great Scott! What other useless stuff can I use Twitter for?
Everything changed this summer when I started my internship at SRJ Marketing Communications in Dallas. My first day, my boss Steve asked me to research anything and everything about social media marketing, and how it can usefully be applied to businesses. After that day, I realized the bottom line of marketing in the 21’st century:
Social. Media. Matters.
Using social media to market a business is an absolute necessity in today’s world. 48 percent of Americans, including all age groups (yes, that includes your grandpa and your infant neice), have a Facebook and/or MySpace account. The number of Twitter users grew 752% in just 2008, with 1 million new accounts in December alone.
So as much as I hate to admit it, I was wrong about social media – even Twitter. In order to reach today’s publics, a company needs to utilize these tools. No, they aren’t the magic wand to increase a business’ sales, they’re just additional outlets for your PR, marketing and advertising efforts. But they’re very, very important ones.
Michael Heil's Blog 