Social Media or Mobile?
Which is the better channel to embrace, mobile or social media? Don't worry, there's no right answer. Each has its pros and cons, just like with any choice marketers have to make. But in this economic downturn, it's important to make the right choice for your customers and your business. I recently wrote a story about Weight Watchers launching a mobile site. In the next issue of 1to1 Magazine, we'll include a story about how Atkins just re-tooled an online site and launched it as a social network. Two similar companies with similar goals (to help people lose weight) but they went about reaching customers very differently.
Both companies say their initiatives have been successful so far (both began in the last six months) and they're encouraged by this new way customers are interacting with them. Since Weight Watchers already interacts with many of its customers through meetings, a way to connect while they're on the go made sense. Atkins was seeking a way to interact with customers who had purchased their books and subscribed to their philosophy, so a social network created a two-way dialogue.
In a perfect world both companies would probably concentrate on both mobile and social media, but they've made the best choices based on their consumers and business needs. Still, it can't hurt to ask which technology will become more important to marketers and customer service practitioners: mobile or social media? I think social media is winning right now, but how do you think it will pan out in the future?
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Hi Jeremy,
mtc - Before the marketer chooses which channels they want to use to create a dialog with the customer, it’s most important to understand who your customer is and what modality they will respond best to. Mobile and SM can definitely find a home in your marketing mix, but neither will do you any good if your customer doesn’t use either with enough frequency to warrant the investment on the marketer’s part.
Thanks,
Annie
Jeremy
I think your mixing apples and oranges
Mobility is a channel, social media is a frequency
I think at the end, business want mobile to gain ascendancy as it gives them the possibility of having geographic relevancy with corroborating metrics to drive business results.
As the channel prevails there will be more mobile friendly modifications made to social media - just as there will be channel friendly modifications such as voice activation/recognition.
Why sit and type when you can talk and walk...and buy the gum to chew at the same time.