Small but significant is the small blue Facebook icon on the bottom of this billboard in London Bridge tube station. I took this photo a couple of weeks ago, happy to see that print and digital are joining forces. It has seemed to me at times that print has been dragged kicking and screaming to meet digital. Hopefully this is a sign that they may play nicely together. It is the classic story of old meets new and old is not too keen on changing.
Perhaps I am just skilled at blocking out the thousands upon thousands of adverts that we all see each day and this has been happening for some time but it was the first time I recall seeing a social media icon on a billboard. This morning I saw another ad in The Metro with a plethora of social media icons attached.
What does this mean for us all?
As consumers we now have a natural path to continue our journey with a brand. This adds a new dimension to print advertising, which has been lacking for some time. Where the consumer would once have only had the advert to go by, they now have numerous methods to learn more, review, be updated and participate.
For companies there is vast potential to work at building the relationship with their customers. With social media so easy, quick and cheap to implement it is a no brainer for all companies to take advantage of it. However, it is important to think through the implementation and overall social media strategy.
It can be dangerous, as with anything, to fail to plan. As Matt Rhodes (social media strategist) has spoken about at a number of Drupal events, getting the followers is not necessarily the challenge but continual engagement can be. Maintaining engagement and keeping them supporting and evangelising your brand can fail miserably if follower numbers are built up over time for a specific promotion and then left out in the cold once the promotion is over.
If social media is to be part of your promotional tool kit ensure you have planned what you intend to use it for.