These are relevant questions, but the key question marketers should be asking is "How can social media help us achieve the goals we have set for our business?"

New technologies create opportunities to engage in the experience of being alive in ways we never expected.  They don't change the fundamental principles of living.

Taken down to driving success in a business, whether at a start-up or an established global enterprise, new technologies provide ways to engage with customers, sell product, or enhance a reputation in ways barely dreamed of twenty years ago.  But they haven't changed the fundamental principles of business success.

Social media marketing tools are in their infancy.  We can anticipate, with technology known today, that reaching customers directly, in real time, with more relevant propositions, will be available with the precision and speed direct marketers will come to demand.  With new predictive models, marketers will be able to so finely tune and target their messages that the customer experience will be intuitive, a part of the day's flow, integrated into the fabric of their lives.

With this marketing opportunity comes great responsibility.  Companies today are finding that social media is a blessing and a curse, if not handled with skill and strategy.

This gets us back to the original question posed in this post.  Social media is a new tool to achieve old goals.  Every Mom & Pop corner shop wants to engage their customers in interesting and relevant conversations, sell their products, make a profit, enhance their reputations, be a good member of their community, pass on a legacy to the next generation.  We have moved from one to one, to one to many, back to one to one.  Only today, it's one to one times many millions of conversations. At social-arc we call this "intimacy at scale." This demands new organizational models, a collaborative strategy for deploying to new social media tools, enforced from the top, new governance policies to control and manage the dialog, freedom to innovate, and a real lack of fear of engagement.  Effective conversations engender goodwill, whether in person or online.  Goodwill builds trust and loyalty.

Another lesson in social media marketing is that these efforts aren't one-offs.  Conversations with customers don't adhere to quarterly budgets or seasonal plans.  They started a long time ago and will continue long after the "social media initiative" ends.  In the 90's companies grappled with issues surrounding their CRM strategy.  Software platforms were developed to manage CRM.  New tools for old challenges.  Customer relationships have always been the key driver of business success. The new use of social media tools is another way to enable, engage and enhance these relationships. But, as with all human interactions, automation will only make the process more efficient.  It can't make the conversation more intelligent. This is where sound marketing strategy, with the right people to implement the tools, makes its entrance.  Smart practitioners will use the tools wisely, building best practices over time.  Social media will become  embedded as one of the tactics employed to drive success based on sound marketing strategy.  Not the other way round.