Good question and one that I’ve been asked often. I hadn’t really thought about the affect of social media on my business as a marketing consultant, but there is certainly some challenges to those who find change difficult.

What most people don’t realize is that the marketing function really hasn’t changed. We still need to understand what the market wants or needs and whether it is aligned with what you have to offer. It is then the role of marketing to build awareness and generate demand.

What has changed is how marketing is being done. Traditional marketing that consisted of a controlled, crafted (read: sanitized) message and “pushed” out to the channel is no longer the best or only way to reach your constituents. This push model is no longer tolerated by many and not adapting your marketing to the new media model can tarnish a company’s brand. These new channels of communication require us to rethink how we deliver our message to our audiences.

But I can’t really say that traditional marketing is dead and gone as direct mail, email campaigns and advertisements on different media (magazines, newspapers and television) still work and supplement the online activities for B2B.

But online marketing has expanded to include social media tools that enable mutual conversation between companies. Marketing is no longer “campaign” driven – It is a long term project that ties together all the activities that helps the prospect learn who we are and how we can help them solve a problem/challenge.

A timely article published this week in Advertising Age, talks about the biggest challenges Marketers face with Social Networks. In the article, Michael Bush cautions marketers to learn the culture of social networks before you charge in. I made the same point in my previous post about watch, listen and learn, much in the same way you would enter a party with people you never met before.

“Any marketer worth its salt is going to spend a good deal of time studying the dynamics, rules and language of any social network before attempting to establish a presence there.”

What I have learned in my travels through social media is the biggest change is the need to think about marketing in new ways. Good marketers will suck up all the knowledge they can on the topic, figure out how to proceed and then put their plan into action – which is no different from what good marketers have done for years.

However, those who try to force the square peg (traditional marketing techniques) into a round hole (new media marketing), will not succeed. As stated in the article:

Most marketers think they can simply take their mainstream advertising efforts and activate them on these networks under the assumption that they will flourish.

Social networks are about connections and communication that builds the pathways to new, fruitful relationships. New media are the new tools of marketing that have made marketing conversations with your prospects and customers much easier and effective.

I’d love to hear from others on their views on how social media has affected them in their careers.