Can social media networks save your business or your advertisers’ business? The short answer is, no, not on its own.
In order for advertising to motivate an action it is dependent on the level of acceptance granted by the consumer to the medium reaching out to them. And that acceptance varies greatly across the social and demographic strata. What works for communicating with the comic book aficionado may not be suitable for the casual follower of a research firm. Social networks are effective at increasing participation -— by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires. In other words, you can “like” a cause or a firm, and share that with others, but it does not necessarily translate into true action. That action commitment is best achieved by constant outreach to the core clientele through a variety of methods that derive from a central point, or voice.
Email is perhaps the most effective at achieving consumer action because it requires commitment, and 
motivation, on the part of the recipient — they must opt-in for a stated reason or proposition, they must open and read the email and then the consumer must make a decision of how to dispose of it, retain it or take action. Unlike a social network, what matters most is not the size of the list but the “interest level” of the list. It is a fact, increasing an email list does not provide better reach, or even increase action results, because it requires more generalization and by nature this will dilute the commitment-level as the motivators multiply to seek the average. Commonality diminishes in such an environment. To say “we need to double our mailing list” misses the point of effective email. Lists built on narrow and distinct interests, or “rallying points,” are more successful, returning higher open and action rates. The more smaller lists you have, the more effective each will be in motivating a desired effect.
The occasional tweet can be an action motivator but too often it is seen as an intrusion to receive a beeping or chiming “must-see” message that is little more than a marketing gambit. Social networks are limited in their reach because they are not true participation motivators. And often, early adapters and innovators try to cram every stray fact and experience into the new model to ascertain that the new medium destroys the old without looking at the complimentary and distinct behaviors that can lead to a symbiotic marketing approach. Thus the glut of social network success stories (often sans ROI detail).
There is no silver bullet in marketing. It requires a deep understanding of the target customer and the ways that they interact with media in order to leverage the most impact. This is a moving target as new media springs up every few years and the ways people consume and communicate change rapidly. No one approach is valid — it requires experimentation, fine-tuning and an understanding of the unique characteristics and motivators of each medium and how they work in a dynamic integrated fashion to achieve a marketing objective.
