The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, 3rd Edition

Identifying Your Existing Media

To start off, you need to look at all of your existing traditional media, whether it’s print ads, newspapers, trade journals, trade shows, radio, TV, telemarketing, billboards, door hangers, direct mail, whatever. Lock yourself in your office, turn off the phone (and your cell phone), and start making a list.

Analyze Your Existing Media Strategy

Now that you have a complete list of your entire marketing media, let’s take a look at what has been effective and what has not? I am sure you have some feelings about what has been effective, but we need something more tangible than that. Have you been accurately measuring your traditional media?

If not, don’t feel bad; nearly no one does, or can, for that matter. In traditional marketing, we almost always use impressions. If you ask any newspaper how they measure the effectiveness of their medium and my advertising dollars, they tell you that for each ad placed, two and a half people per newspaper will view that ad. Do you actually believe that?

In my opinion, half of all printed newspapers go unread. And when read once, they either go into the landfill, the recycle bin, or at the bottom of a birdcage. I don’t believe that two and a half people read each newspaper.

The same is true for magazine, radio, and television impressions. When was the last time you sat through and comprehended a television commercial or listened to a radio ad, or studied, let alone reacted, to a newspaper ad?

The next step is a ...