And A Twitter Runs Through It

Some marketing gurus from the biggest shops and biggest brands got together Monday as part of a panel discussion about social media. (They appeared as part of OMMA Global’s biannual conference in New York City, which, incidentally, is titled “The New Socialism” to reflect this hot topic).

Their overall advice on social media marketing? It’s got to be “a fabric running through all advertising and promotional efforts” – not just an avant-garde subset of your marketing plan.

That’s good advice. Social media, while new and buzzy, can be harnessed for marketing and business purposes but only when it works in concert with your overall marketing plan – just like a traditional media channel would.

In this piece, MediaPost’s Mark Walsh gives a summary of the panel’s ideas and shares some tips he gathered from talking with Rob Master, North American media director for Unilever, the consumer products giant.

Cindy Harris