Social Media- The Wrong Tool For the Job. By: Aaron Mandelbaum Tel: (917) 477-7957 Email Mr. Mandelbaum Website: www.linkedin.com/in/amandelbaum

We are surrounded by social media tools and conversation about how great a campaign was, how terrible it was or how hard it is to track ROI. There are enough conversations in enough places for us to understand that social media is not a fad. I say that its the wrong tool for the job but only for some jobs. Lets discuss what job your trying to do and what tool you're using.

Social media is an accessible and mostly free sub-genre of marketing. It is shaping how we think and interact. Within the realm of social media we find many specific tools. Someone who says they "do social media" is like saying you "like music". There is jazz, heavy metal, country, do you like all those genres? Social media encompasses social networking, social bookmarking, blogging, micro-blogging and more. Each of these is a genre and there are multiple tools within each.

As you develop a campaign you want to be sure you are clear what tool you intend to use. Too often as a strategy consultant I hear people say, "we want 1,000,000 Facebook fans" or "Once we get 500,000 Twitter followers we'll improve sales." In these examples, Facebook and Twitter are tools. What isn't stated is the strategy. Tools are the last part of the equation and often, people select the wrong tool for the strategy.

If you want to listen to your audience and learn from them, Twitter is a great passive tool. If you want to engage and get feedback from your audience then Facebook could be a good tool for you. If you are looking to boost your SEO perhaps you should blog and (more importantly) guest blog on other sites.

Lets go back to the music analogy. Instruments are tools in the song strategy. Your guitar amp doesn't have to go to 11 if you are playing on the Lawrence Welk show. If you play accordion you may not get a gig in a Miles Davis tribute band. Understand the strategy then pick the tool. Otherwise, you're locked into years of accordion lessons and no closer to Harlem.