Feeling Social

Kelly Kovack, co-founder of Purpose-Built, says, move aside innovation, the new topic du jour is social media.

Written by: Kelly Kovack, Co-Founder, Purpose-Built

AUTHOR BIO: Kelly Kovack is co-founder of Purpose-Built, a boutique agency that focuses on brand, product and space, providing turnkey business solutions for clients such as Old Navy, Zirh and Suki. With 15 years of experience in the beauty industry, she has consulted with numerous brands and held positions as vice president of marketing at MD Skincare and managing director for Bliss Catalog. For more info: [email protected]

Move aside innovation, the new topic du jour is social media. There isn’t a day that goes by that I am not inundated with articles, invitations to seminars, questions on the topic, and the references to Burberry’s Art of The Trench, brilliant as it is, never seem to end. However, social media is not a fad. It’s here to stay and is fundamentally changing the way consumers and companies interact.

Regardless of your feelings on the subject, it is no longer a question of if you should engage in social media, but how, because our old marketing toolbox is quickly becoming obsolete. If that isn’t incentive enough, Facebook has 450 million users globally and if it were a country, it would be the third largest in the world behind China and India. Common sense dictates that where customers are, business must follow.

Some companies are jumping in with both feet while others find wading into the fast moving flow of social media daunting. If you find yourself grouped with the latter, I was right there with you a year ago, but after months of observation and research, I took the plunge. Now I can’t seem to get enough. The technology and format have had a democratizing effect, leveling the playing field between large brands and niche players, presenting a unique opportunity limited only by creativity. Social media initiatives don’t require enormous budgets. They necessitate a commitment of time, strategic integration into the brand’s overarching marketing plan and constant analysis.

As marketers, our role has changed. We can no longer manage our brands by simply creating well-honed messaging and driving it home through repetition using traditional media outlets. In this new world of social media, consumers have taken ownership of our brands, and success requires relinquishing some control, listening, engaging and reacting to customer needs.

In developing social marketing strategies for clients at Purpose-Built, we have embraced Erik Qualman’s concept that “Successful companies in social media act more like party planners, aggregators, and content providers than traditional advertisers.”