Given all the attention such social media channels as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube have been getting lately, it’s easy to overlook the importance of having a good, old-fashioned blog as the cornerstone of your social media program.

Sure, other social media channels may be sexier (and, frankly, easier to manage), but a blog is typically where your more substantive content lives, where you’re going to earn the most respect for your willingness and ability to share your thoughts with others.

As I wrote here on this blog (”Why Advertising, Marketing and PR Pros Should Blog,” December 2004) nearly five years ago …

A blog is tailor-made for storing and managing your intellectual capital. It’s a centralized repository for experience and expertise, an incredibly easy way to disseminate key, timely information to an audience of readers who are already interested in what you have to offer.

And today, with so many other social media channels at your disposal, a blog can play an even bigger role, serving as fodder for many of your tweets, status updates and comments across the web.

So don’t forget the cornerstone of some of the best social media programs. Don’t forget to blog.

Recent, Related Posts Written by Others on Blogging and Blogs…

6 Excuses Why People And Companies Do Not Blog (Inner Architect)
The Top 10 Reasons Why Businesses Must Blog: Perception Is Reality (Inner Architect)
20 Reasons Why You Should Blog Before You Twitter (Jeffbullas’s Blog)
Is There Business Value From Blogging? (PR Communications)
The Secret To Building Relationships with B2B Bloggers: Commenting (Social Media B2B)
Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated (PR 2.0)

My Three-Part Series on “Why Advertising, Marketing and PR Pros Should Blog” from December 2004…

Why Advertising, Marketing and PR Pros Should Blog, Part One
Why Advertising, Marketing and PR Pros Should Blog, Part Two
Why Advertising, Marketing and PR Pros Should Blog, Part Three

By the way, if you’re looking for someone to help you create and manage your own blog, Twitter account, Facebook Fan Page, etc., please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’m available for hire and my work is guaranteed. Thanks.

While I’ve always believed in the principles and power of direct marketing, as soon as I started blogging in early 2004, I realized I had discovered something that could very well have a huge impact on the future of the industry in which I earned my livelihood.

I’m no prognosticator, but I saw for myself what the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto had written in their groundbreaking book, that, among other things, “markets are conversations” and that “there are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone” and that “companies that don’t realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity.” 

I didn’t want to miss that opportunity.  I didn’t want my employers and clients to miss that opportunity.  And I didn’t want the direct marketing industry to miss that opportunity. 

So while for so many years I had espoused the beliefs and heeded the advice of such direct marketing legends as Bob Stone, Lester Wunderman, Joan Throckmorton, Herschell Gordon Lewis and Denny Hatch, now I was reading books and blogs written by new marketing gurus and social media pioneers like Seth Godin, Joseph Jaffe, Robert Scoble, Yvonne DiVita, David Meerman Scott, Steve Rubel and B.L. Ochman — and hanging on every word.

And not only did I become a blogging aficionado, I became a blogging evangelist, preaching to anyone and everyone who would listen about what I thought were the benefits of this newfangled, self-publishing platform.

While I was once solely focused on the list and the offer and the benefits and a guarantee and getting a good response, now I was thinking about authenticity and transparency and immediacy – but yes, still getting a good response.

While I was once believed that companies had the upper hand in their communications with consumers, I was rapidly beginning to realize that online communities (or “markets,” as proclaimed in The Cluetrain Manifesto) had the real control and that marketers had better join the conversation – and listen to their constituents – or forever hold their peace.

But I never once thought direct marketing and blogging had to be mutually exclusive…not at all.

In fact, on April 9, 2004, in my blog (this blog), I wrote…

“…isn’t true direct marketing all about initiating a one-to-one dialogue with a mass audience (oxymoronic concept aside)?  “Listen to the murmur of your market.”  That’s what Don Jackson writes on page 116 of “2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Success,” the book he put together with Denny Hatch in 1998.  He tells readers:  “Create feedback loops in your database environment so that you can record what your customers and prospects are saying about your products, your service, your company and your competition.  There is no more valuable source of information.”  Exactly.  This blog is one such “feedback loop.”  It’s one way of interlocking the circle of people who visit us through our Web site – and establishing mutually beneficial relationships with each and every one of them.”

That was then.  This is now.

Now we have studies like Michael Stelzner’s, sponsored by the Social Media Success Summit 2009, saying that (according to this article at Marketing Charts)…

“An overwhelming majority (88%) of marketers in a recent survey say they are now using some form of social media to market their business, though 72% of those using it say they have only been at it a few months or less.”

Now I find myself using not just blogs, but Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook as much as direct mail, email and other non-social media on behalf of my clients.  

Now I don’t feel so alone among my peers in the direct marketing community when it comes to talking about – and actually using – social media.

Indeed, like Bob Dylan once sung, “the times they are a-changing” – fast.  And it is my belief that those of us direct marketing, advertising and PR professionals who can leverage social media technologies and tools to build long-lasting, mutually-beneficial relationships with colleagues, clients, customers, connections, friends and fans will be much more successful amidst this new communications era.

What about you? What do you believe? Where do you stand at the intersection of social media and marketing? On one side or the other or smack dab in the middle with me?

Note: Earlier this year, I was honored and humbled to be named the “Direct Marketer of the Year” for 2009 by the New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA). This post is an adaptation of the speech I had the opportunity to give to an audience of my peers upon acceptance of the award on May 6, 2009 during NEDMA’s Annual Conference at the LaCava Center at Bentley University in Waltham, MA.

While I haven’t posted much here on A New Marketing Commentator lately, I have been active in the blogosphere via Internet Marketing Strategies and Secrets, a blog that is published and written by the team at Nowspeed. I’ve written a number of long posts there, most about social media, something I’ve been preaching and practicing and incorporating into my everyday marketing activities – where and when appropriate, of course – like there’s no tomorrow.

So as a way of kickstarting this long overdue re-launch of the blog that I reluctantly put on hiatus for so long, I thought I would share some of those posts with you here. If you have the time, reading through this retrospective of mine will give you an idea of what I’ve been up to lately and will, hopefully, help you start, or improve upon, your own social media program.

What will be apparent after reading all this is just how strongly I believe that social media presents a rare, unprecedented and transformational opportunity for all of us marketers to deepen the bonds we covet with our customers and constituents.

So instead of asking “why social media,” try asking yourself “why not.” Instead of fearing it, try using it to your advantage to form long-lasting, mutually-beneficial relationships with like-minded people who are grounded in a high degree of transparency, trust, loyalty and love toward one another. And if you’re having any difficulty understanding social media and its many business applications, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me — anytime. I’m always glad to help. Always…

The Cure for the Common Social Media Practitioner
Preview: What’s a social media practitioner to do in order to be heard loud and clear above the din of so much online activity, never mind responded to favorably? How do you as a marketer or a PR pro or perhaps even an intern who’s been hired to build a constituency of friends, fans and followers command attention and respect for the brand you represent?

To read “The Cure for the Common Social Media Practitioner” in its entirety, click here.

How to Weave Cause-Related Marketing and Fundraising Tactics into Your Social Media Program
Preview: There is a social media marketing strategy that appears to have caught on out there, one that can help marketers like you do well by doing good for others, one that Minneapolis-based Target Corporation leveraged recently by way of its “Bullseye Gives” campaign, in which the retailer asked its audience to go to its Facebook Fan Page and choose – from a list of 10 – the charities it should “give to the most.”

To read “How to Weave Cause-Related Marketing and Fundraising Tactics into Your Social Media Program” in its entirety, click here.

Five Important Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Use Social Media
Before you decide to dip your toes in social media, take a few minutes to answer these five important questions.  If you can answer yes to at least a few of them, then you’re in a pretty good place, a position from which you can at least begin to immerse yourself in such relatively uncharted waters as the blogosphere, the Twitterverse, Facebook and the like.   If not, then you need to move the needle in these areas and possibly talk to a third party specialist who can provide consultation, support and assistance.

To read “Five Important Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Use Social Media” in its entirety, click here.

The Ten Types of Tweets on Twitter
Preview: How many different ways are there for marketers like us to express ourselves to a mass of followers, fanatics and friends on Twitter? Well, for starters, here’s a list of the ten types of tweets that seem to prevail on Twitter, each of which you might work into the rotation during the course of your communications on this phenomenally popular social media platform.

To read “The Ten Types of Tweets on Twitter” in its entirety, click here.
 
10 Surprising Similarities Between Blogging and Direct Marketing
Preview: Sure, blogging is all about being open, honest and yes, vulnerable.  Its most ardent devotees believe passionately in sharing generously with their audiences, engaging them frequently in particularly candid conversations in public forums where everyone has an equal voice. So it’s not necessarily the first place you’d turn if your priority is, say, e-commerce.  But the number of similarities between blogging and direct marketing tell me the two disciplines don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  Not at all. For instance…

To read “10 Surprising Similarities Between Blogging and Direct Marketing” in its entirety, click here.

15 Types of Posts to Make a Blog Easier to Write and More Interesting to Read
Preview: A post can be as short as just a sentence or two or as long as a full, feature-length, 500-word article.  It doesn’t have to be perfectly written, either, as the main attributes of a prototypical post are mainly that it’s somewhat conversational in tone, timely and, most important of all, engaging. Yes, there are many different types of blog posts.  I have listed 15 in this article, but the possibilities are almost endless.

To read “15 Types of Posts to Make a Blog Easier to Write and More Interesting to Read” in its entirety, click here.

Are You a Corporate All-Star?
Preview: Whether it’s delivering an outstanding presentation at an important trade show, winning over a client with an awesome display of creative firepower or simply going above and beyond on everything that’s asked of you, there are many obvious ways to score points with your boss. But now you can add blogging, tweeting and even spending company time on Facebook to that list.

To read “Are You a Corporate All-Star?” in its entirety, click here.

How to Use Twitter to Report “Live” from an Event
Preview: Tweeting about a “live” event in real time is not only fun, it gives you the opportunity to treat your constituents to valuable information and insight that they might not have gotten otherwise.  It is also of tremendous benefit to those who are putting on the gig, as you are in effect acting as a journalist, or even an evangelist, propagating their content, helping them get the word out to a larger audience.

To read “How to Use Twitter to Report ‘Live’ from an Event” in its entirety, click here.

The Six Fears of Facebook and Other Social Media Channels
Preview: The reason my wife, Barbara, hesitated to take the plunge and sign up for Facebook for so long is pretty much the same one that others — especially business people and corporations — are taking so much time to dip their collective toes in the social media waters in general. Fear. That’s what I learned from my wife about Facebook and social media…and that’s what I would like to share with you here.  Most people hesitate to join the online conversation because of these six fears…

To read “The Six Fears of Facebook and Other Social Media Channel” in its entirety, click here.
 
Target Uses Newspaper Ad and Social Media to Give Back to Communities
Preview: Since 1946, according to the retailer’s website, “Target has given 5% of our income to the communities we serve. That adds up to over $3 million each and every week.” Here’s how Target saluted the moms among us (in honor of Mother’s Day) and leveraged social media to give (something every brand, big or small, should be doing nowadays) by asking members of their audience to go to their Facebook Fan Page, where they could tell them “which of these ten charity partners we should give to the most.”

To read ”Target Uses Newspaper Ad and Social Media to Give Back to Communities” in its entirety, click here.
 
Old-School Marketing Principles in a New-Media World
Preview: Despite the popularity of social media, you can still succeed in marketing today the old-fashioned way.  Yes, there are still plenty of opportunities for purists, traditionalists and even the raw neophytes among us to leverage the timeless, tried-and-true principles of our trade. Take Cushman’s Fruit Company, for example.  Demonstrating the right way to harness a few proven, age-old direct response advertising strategies, Cushman’s was selling 24 of its legendary HoneyBells in a quintessential, full-page mail-order ad that appeared in the November 23 (2008) edition of PARADE Magazine.

To read “Old-School Marketing Principles in a New-Media World” in its entirety, click here.

Note: Bob Cargill is a copywriter, creative director and social media marketing consultant who works with Nowspeed and other clients, helping to strategize, develop and implement successful new marketing programs. He is available for hire (by both commercial and non-profit organizations) on a part-time, temporary, project or contract basis. To contact Bob now, click here.