If Pepsi Does it, Why Shouldn't You?
If Social Media in lieu of advertising during the Super Bowl is good enough for one of the biggest beverage companies in the world, do you think it might be good enough to deserve a few dollars from your advertising budget?
Pepsi Cola made an unprecedented decision and pulled the plug on advertising during the Super Bowl. Instead, they are investing some of the money they saved ($20 million), in a Social Media campaign. This was the first time in more than 20 years that Pepsi did not have commercials air during half time, before or after the big game on Super Sunday. The ad execs at Pepsi have seen the writing on the wall…or in this case, they've seen the writing in the blogs. They have witnessed the numbers of TV viewership drop and believe the advertising budget is best spent on Social Media.
Other large companies are dedicating hefty portions of their budgets into Social Media, too. According to President and CEO Larry D. Woodard of Vigilante, a Manhattan ad agency, Toys-R-Us created a Facebook page that grew anywhere between 40,000 and 95,000 per day after it was launched. That's an amazing amount of growth for one single business, regardless of how large the company!
So what is the Social Media buzz about? Well, for one thing, SM builds communities between businesses and their audience, or buyers. The conversation about most sizable companies is already taking place online somewhere, anyway. Having it on a website that is run by those companies just makes sense.
However, Social Media might not be right for you. The different ways of interacting through Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Youtube, and many other sites could be something that doesn't appeal to you at this time. Maybe you're unsure about how the metrics or the Return on Investment (ROI) will be calculated. If you're prone to sitting back and waiting to see how something plays out before you get involved, go ahead and wait. However, you're going to be behind when you finally decide to join the rest of us.
Social Media is a constantly changing and evolving animal. Learning how to Twitter was important to understanding how to utilize a tool like Hootsuite. Most of us progressed from Myspace to Facebook, which helped us understand the concept very quickly, simply because we were familiar with the former. Just keep in mind that if you dragged your feet before you succumbed to email, eventually you began to use it for nearly all of your correspondence. This is technology that is not going away. When the time comes to begin a Social Media campaign for your business there will be plenty of specialists around to help you, there already are.
I tend to watch the movers and shakers in order to know what's going on with business and upcoming trends. When a company like Pepsi Cola decides Social Media is a better gamble than running commercials during the big game on Super Bowl Sunday, I tend to put stock in that.
Wendy D. Wells is President of WD Wells Writing and Editing, LLC
She is a Charlotte, NC based, Telecommuting Copywriter, Professional Blogger and Editor.
Follow me on Twitter! @WendyWells
Posted by Wendy Wells. Posted In : Social Media
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I am a professional wordsmith and a Marketing and Brand generations strategist with experience composing Public Relations and Marketing creative copy including: web sites, blogs, print, press releases, catalog copy, and email marketing campaigns.
Read my blogs regularly and you'll find I'm passionate about writing - always have been. Since I first heard the story of "Peter Pan and Wendy," I became a lover of stories. As soon as I could hold a book and understand the alphabet, I grew to be an avid reader. Once I was able to hold a pencil and put sentences together, I knew I was a writer.
