At a meeting of CMO-level marketing execs yesterday, the topic of social media came up.  Not surprising since it seems to be THE topic of discussion lately.  Everyone has questions about the strategy behind integrating social media into a marketing plan and because it’s so new, there are no clear-cut, proven templates to work from.  What I heard from this group is exactly what I’m reading online every day — CEOs want to know if they should be on Twitter; companies are trying to figure out how to harness the power of Twitter and other social media sites; everyone knows that they can’t wait to figure this out — they have to jump in now.  But without a strategy in place, how do you just jump in? 

It’s clear that companies out there are desperate for someone to tell them how to do this.  And what I heard even more loudly and clearly is that agencies don’t know what they’re doing either.  Many of these CMOs indicated that the agencies they were working with had presented themselves as social media experts but when push came to shove, they knew no more than their clients.  And when the decision was going to be made between maintaining a relationship with either the advertising agency or the PR firm, the PR firm won.

So what does all this mean?  Well, for those companies who truly embrace social media and harness the power to engage their audiences, they will see success.  It might come through trial and error, but there will be success.  For those companies who ignore social media, hoping it will go away……well, good luck.  Social media is not some fad that will fall by the wayside. Yes, there are tools out there that may stop being popular but remember, social media is about the conversation with your audience…..not the tools or technology that you use.