Round one - Traditional advertising vs Social Media - FIGHT!

On April 27th, 2011 Mark Bandte wrote:

I've been thinking a lot lately about the cost of advertising via conventional methods - ie. newspapers, magazines, billboards etc - as opposed to social media.

I've previously worked with design furniture, where, in the beginning we used to put in our monthly advertisements, and give our money and just trust that it worked.  I mean - hey, that's just how we do it, right?  After a while, we started to ask our clients where it was that they had found us, and we were quite shocked at how little people had seen us in magazines and such.  Most people had either found us online, or had been referred by friends or family.  Good ol' word of mouth never fails, I guess.  Well, who would you trust more?  Someone you knew (even if you didn't know them very well), or a random picture with some writing in a magazine or newspaper? It's not like the magazine is really putting you in there only because they think you're cool- you have to pay through the nose for that space.  I think that maybe people get a little desensitized after a while (I know I have).  Don't get me wrong - it's great for visibility, but if you are a small to medium business, it's not the easiest thing to throw €1500 - €4000 for a page which someone will see once or twice and then throw away.  

So why not invest €5000 or so, and learn how to use something which is essentially free (albeit the time used) , and use it well?  

Learning how to post great and epic content, how to be visible and accessible to your customers, how to build your brand and show the personality of the employees, and sharing your work and products with your clients, directly, is pure gold!  Imagine: The beauty of word of mouth, fused with advertising! And all it costs is your time. 

Keep on rockin' in the free world!

[advertising, social, media, conventional, magazines, newspapers, billboards] [5 comments]