From the Nonprofit Marketing & PR page on Smaller Indiana:
Comment by Amy Stark on January 6, 2010 at 2:37pm
“If non-profits in Central #Indiana want their mission to be widely known, the most cost effective way is with a rock solid twitter strategy. Yes. I said it. Twitter strategy NOT social media strategy. No one will pay you a donation before they pay you ATTENTION, and I have yet to encounter a non-profit in Indianapolis with a comprehensive understanding of twitter’s influence and potential.
I wrote a passionate blog yesterday, at the end I wrote: “The Internet is far too fluid to predict the popularity of the next hot product or platform with any certainty. Last year’s My Space is this year’s facebook. But I’m 5 Nines Sure* I’ll read about the next hot product or platform on twitter first.”
Comment by Jon D. Speer on January 9, 2010 at 12:36am
“I’ve read some of the previous comments, and respectively, I disagree. Nonprofits need a holistic marketing strategy–not just social media and twitter.”
Comment by Joe Dager on January 9, 2010 at 12:46a
“Jon, I think everyone on this thread would agree with you. Social Media alone is a failed strategy. If I implied anything of the sort, I was wrong. Social Media allows you to extend offline communications online and if you are not allowing your online to be extended offline, more than likely you are in trouble.”
Comment by Chad Pollitt on January 9, 2010 at 1:05am
“Sorry Joe, but I disagree. Everything depends on the target demographic. Marketing on the web is no different that way back in the middle ages when the town crier went to the town square and rang his bell to promote the blacksmith. He went to the town square because that’s where the people were. If your target demographic is on social media than that’s where the campaign should be.”
Comment by Amy Stark on January 9, 2010 at 7:26pm
“Social media platforms come and go, but the basic 140 characters sent via Internet Protocol globally – at the speed of light – at the grassroots level will not go away. Just like the telephone never went away, or microwave ovens.”
As you can see there are mixed messages based on the comments taken from Smaller Indiana above. But I stick to my guns and say, organizations (for profit and nonprofit) need a HOLISTIC marketing strategy–just ask Tomato Fish Marketing (TFM).
TFM has put together a complete marketing system that helps organizations build strong marketing foundations. Once you’ve built a solid foundation through a holistic strategy, you are better equipped to work on the tactical side of marketing such as Twitter, and other social media tools. “Drop them a line” to learn more.
Disagree? Great, post a comment and let’s have an open dialogue.
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Isn’t marketing about aligning audience needs with organization capabilities – product or service vise? Twitter isn’t pervasive enough to be a solid stand alone platform to entirely base marketing on. To compare twitter to the phone is a bit premature. Besides I don’t believe that most people are on twitter. Twitter is a cool application but its the messaging and content that makes it valuable not twitter in itself. For example most seniors and most teens don’t find twitter essentially interesting. So clearly not every non profit can base their marketing on twitter. Besides I’d hate to my message be restricted to 140 characters. no?
Amy, I agree with your basic premise about awareness or attention but disagree with Twitter as a long term viable tool. Many professionals are getting feed up with Twitter and believe that it is not a credible tool… not all though of course. It’s a “Jonney come lately” in my book of marketing tools.
It’s refreshing to see these responses.
@Duncan – Definitely agree! I can’t see the 140-character platform having a sustainable. I get twitter but don’t get texting (if that makes any sense?). As a small business owner, hoping that my 140 characters resonate with my customer base is a fool’s errand. Don’t mishear me; I do use twitter. But it’s only a small part of my overall marketing strategy.
@Michael – Amy didn’t write the post. We took excerpts from a discussion on the Smaller Indiana social networking site. I agree with your opinions. For a short stretch, I was enamored with twitter. Lately, I rarely visit my twitter feed. What I do think is an interesting phenomenon in marketing is how customers receive marketing messages. Today, in my opinion, the customer has a great deal more power to choose which messages they “hear” and which to ignore. Instead of marketers pushing their messages, customers are in a pull position.
@Brooke – Thanks for posting this.