Marketing versus social media: who needs it nowadays?

If the marketing if it were a single thing, it would be difficult to imagine it. Her nature is to fragment, specialize, break down and recompose in perfect fit with her sister branches. And so is the situation of the platforms where it is possible to dedicate oneself to marketing. Among these fragments, which are not so small, there are large social elements that have been questioned by the most important and authoritative luminaries in the field. After all, the brand lives and feeds on relationships, and that's where you have to start again.

To say these things is Seth Godin will say too, American writer and leading marketing expert, author of 18 best sellers translated into over 35 languages. A few days ago in Italy it came out “This is marketing”, by Roi Edizioni, which is already a best seller in America for the Wall Street Journal, Amazon and NY Times.

In his view, now is the right time to get brands off the social media carousel, which goes faster and faster and then, however, never get anywhere. We need to stop the relentless spam of products that disturb users' newsfeeds, believing that advertising is always welcome. This is the mistake: we almost never are! In a phase of sudden historical changes, social is a shortcut that no longer works as perhaps only 5 years ago one would have thought. Now is the time to focus on authenticity which passes inescapably from experiences. And here falls the donkey.

Unless your social network is selling machines for attaching buttons to shirts, it is very likely that it is appealing to emotions to be able to win over its clientele.

These phrases have been extrapolated from the interview that Seth Godin gave to Il Sole 24 Ore on the occasion of the release of his book, and they suggest a new way of conceiving marketing, finally once and for all free from the dictatorship of algorithms, the which instead focuses on the niche that is worthwhile.

According to what was stated in his interview, the marketing is at a very particular point in its existence. Now, it's no longer about stealing people's attention in order to sell them something. Not at all. After fifty years of this strategy, people have desensitized themselves to the model, and advertisements have taken attention and investment away from what really matters: the solidity of the brand. The approach that's also successful for the media and that has thrived on hype, cheating and pressure – well, these times are over. We need to leave them behind once and for all.

The new era is one where ads are not the driver, but the product itself is the marketing. And attention, earned without scams and squabbles, is the spice of the business.

How can such a result be achieved after fifty years of marketing done completely differently? According to Seth, it is necessary to really listen, and try to understand what society really needs. It is therefore necessary to present oneself in a credible, authoritative, honest and coherent way towards the public. A narrative that is not for everyone, but that manages to attract an unexpectedly high number of users. Those who seek general consensus end up placing themselves in the center of the curve, arriving at unpleasant compromises such as being too generalist to be able to please everyone, absolutely everyone, until they reach image compromises that inevitably affect the credibility of the brand. The alternative is to do something worth talking about.

Social media, therefore, is no longer idealized as an effective means of obtaining low-cost mass marketing. It has never been like this and it won't be soon. Social media is a limited tool that, according to Seth, doesn't even make us happy. The truth is that some brands continue to rely on them to sell, and are actually slowly sinking into the slime.

Let's forget the advertising campaigns: because the very concept of a campaign implies that you are manipulating attention to sell something. Companies need to learn to say: «We have tools and levers to better serve people, helping them in different ways». The idea of ​​low attention implies the need to make valuable products and services and the rush to build networks. Boring companies are interested in sales, human ones are interesting and spontaneously attract users.

Today's marketing is made up of a multitude of hybrid profiles, which are placed between analysis, communication, the translation of complex realities and much more. The theme is tough and contemporary, but it's worth noting that the 500 most influential companies in the world are also bigger than any other nation. More and more companies take the theme of their product marginally and are instead more interested in issues of connection, civilization and social commitment. We don't think it's philanthropy: it's in their best interest to talk about these topics.

So, to conclude, Seth says that the most important skill to work in marketing today is that of empathy, or the ability to see others for what they really are and to see in them what they dream of being. If you want to operate effectively in marketing, you need to throw yourself into the market and learn that you are not a cog to oil, but a fragment of the whole that can be indispensable. And from here, the marketing that generates courage.

What do you think?