News

In ad circles, “social media” is the new paradigm. It takes up a lot of blog space and is often touted as the next sure thing in terms of getting young people to respond to ad messages. Corporations have spent millions refining their “social space” and allowing users to have “brand experiences” on sites like Facebook and Myspace…all while trying to contain themselves when the end user has unkind things to say about their products. It’s all about the “conversation,” they rationalize, and the return-on-investment must be there, somewhere, right? Right?! Well, maybe.

In a study out today, young adults (18-34 years old) say they’re more likely to respond to an ad delivered via e-mail or…wait for it…direct mail than messages on social sites. Seriously? Direct mail? Isn’t that the paper stuff that’s in a little box attached to my house? According to some bloggers, young people don’t even know they get direct mail, let alone act on advertising messages that are contained therein.

The study was conducted by Ball State and Indianapolis, Ind.-based ExactTarget, an email marketing firm. I’m a bit surprised by these results, especially given one of the study’s sponsors has a horse in this race in terms of increasing email marketing. While there is some value in social sites, I do think it’ll be a while before Facebook’s advertising and business models shake out.

Bottom line, I think it’s important for companies that count young professionals among its target audiences to have a social networking presence, but don’t throw the advertising model of consistent messaging across multiple platforms out the window just yet. A good plan, integrated across multiple channels and executed consistently will always get you results, regardless of what Joe the Consumer writes on your Facebook Wall.