Social Media is quickly becoming “the place to be” for people to learn, play, interact and get the latest news. Traditional forms of media and news are beginning to fall by the way side. There are a handful of major U.S. cities that have lost their daily newspapers to interactive online versions. People are joining Facebook and Twitter faster than the US is increasing the national deficit. So how can you take advantage of all this growth and change to intensify your traditional marketing strategies?

1. Stop barging in on people.

No one likes commercials (with the possible exception of Super Bowl Commercials), and advertising in general tends to interrupt the natural flow of life. Social Media allows for involvement instead of interruption. Instead of sending direct mail pieces, mass emails, or making me wait to watch Paula and Simon argue on American Idol, you can setup a fan page on Facebook which allows users to promote the cause themselves. You haven’t interrupted anybody and the user interaction door has been opened. Of course, you still need to get the word out the fan page exists, but Social Media has some nifty tools for that as well.

2. An endless supply of user generated content, or UGC.

This one aspect alone makes Social Media extremely attractive to marketers. In the last few years, UGC has moved beyond blogs, forums, and comments. Social Media tools have been used to encourage communities to create everything from a band’s music video to the next t-shirt design for sale. Following the success of Threadless, the wildly popular site Woot branched off to create shirt.woot. These sites solicits shirt designs from users and then have the community vote on which should be printed. They only make and sale shirts that receive the most votes. Starting a UGC campaign can be tricky, and must be thoroughly monitored. You need to walk the line between encouraging creativity and protecting the brand.

3. No more collateral damage.

Focusing your marketing efforts on the exact audience you want to reach is always a challenge. Although Social Media is relatively new, the search and reporting features are robust. So many new services are coming out for Twitter alone that it’s almost impossible to keep up. TwitterHawk allows you to setup a search that sends you a list of all the tweets that match your exact criteria. Rudy’s could setup a search for the word bar-b-q, in Austin, within 5 miles and TwitterHawk sends you a list of all the tweets that match. Then you can either setup a mass response or respond to each individually. This may be the most targeted marketing ever.

4. Receive feedback really really fast!

I’m sure we’ve all heard the adage, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” In marketing, if we don’t, or can’t measure the effectiveness of our campaigns, then we don’t last very long. Companies spend big bucks on focus groups and other analytics to help them determine the effectiveness of their advertising. With Social Media, you can receive that information almost instantly. Sometimes a little feedback, combined with some PR and customer care, is just the boost a campaign needs.

5. Social Media can be scary.

Not controlling when and where people see your advertising, no boundaries to the distribution of materials, users creating products and content, instant negative feedback. All these things are can leave you with an uneasy feeling, but these are some of the greatest things about Social Media. It puts you at the cutting edge, and the edge of anything can be a scary place. I think it’s safe to say Social Media is not the next slap bracelet, parachute pants, or snuggie. The Twitter’s, Facebook’s, and LinkedIn’s may come and go, but the Social Media culture is here to stay.

Question of the day: Where does Social Media rank as a marketing tool in the history of mankind? (Compared to paper, the printing press, telephones, etc.)

~ Josh