An associate of ours passed along a note that Dave Barger, a local competitor who is very active with promoting Social Media, is giving a speech on that topic to the Public Relations Society of America- Memphis Chapter.

Dave has done a great job getting the word out about how effective Social Media is for online marketing in Memphis, but I’m seeing a growing trend that everyone wants to focus on Social Media right now since it is the new ‘hot’ thing out there. Let me first say that I am a true believer in social media marketing, but I can’t say enough that it has to be part of an overall online marketing strategy. I talk to every client that we sit down with about the amazing benefits of social media marketing, but it is not likely to bring high levels of success if undertaken as a singular effort.  Marketing, as a rule, should not operate inside of a vacuum and that goes for Social Media Marketing as well.

Social Media Gone Wrong
Recently, there has been a ton of buzz about Motrin’s social media campaign that completely backfired. In case you missed it, this commercial was a Web video ad for Motrin was developed by the folks at McNeil Consumer Healthcare, which is a unit of Johnson & Johnson. The ad was targeted at mothers and talked about the physical pain involved with carrying an infant in a sling. Watch for yourself and see what you think:

The ad was intended to show empathy for young moms, but ad came off as too flippant for some and a hger campaign of angry mothers started building on Twitter over the weekend with thousands joining its ranks, tweeting angrily about the Motrin campaign.

Equally swift was the company’s response, which came early Monday when Johnson & Johnson plastered the front-page of the Motrin.com site with an apology. They stated, in case anybody missed it – “We have heard you.”

This is a great example of how using Social Media went terribly wrong and why consultants who are pushing Social media marketing as the be-all, end-all of online marketing may quite possibly be giving some less-than-ideal advice to their clients. That’s why it is important to understand how all the pieced come together for a successful online presence, so keep reading, and we’ll continue to tell you how to do it!