New Marketing – Social media is the future

Will new marketing help reduce clutter?

My co-worker and I have been talking about the change that is going on in marketing due to the growing popularity of social media.  Traditionally, marketing has been about branding and grabbing the consumer’s attention.  Flashing banners, dancing mortgage ads, and pop-ups that swoop across the screen are standards of web advertisements.  To me, it’s all annoying clutter.

Fortunately, the internet offers a new, positive way to market products.  With the ease in which video can be produced, and the explosion of social networking sites, useful information can be spread in ways unimaginable even a few years ago.  This has opened new possibilities for marketing.  Rather than adding clutter, businesses can tell stories that not only entertain their viewers, but also inform them.  Running shoe stores can do more than tell you about a product – they can make videos with marathon training tips.  Science labs can tell you what is going on behind the scenes.  Software companies can twitter and blog about the progress of development.

Too few businesses are taking advantage of these new possibilities.  In the near future, I hope to expand the scope of my current work to include content creation for websites.  I want sites to fully take advantage of these opportunities.  It is better for business, better for consumers, and will help stop the clutter.