The biggest challenge that I see is getting people who have practiced traditional marketing for their entire careers to adopt a new set of values. The first instinct is to treat any form of social media as a channel that you use to drive a corporate message. It’s relatively easy to grasp the tools but more challenging to understand how new technologies have changed communication behaviors and patterns. You’re essentially asking people to stop pushing a highly packaged image of their brand and begin to talk with people in communities and social networks. It’s the difference between buying your way into a new culture as a tourist and earning your way in as a participating citizen. Like traveling in a foreign country, you get high marks for trying to speak the language, no matter how badly.
http://adage.com/smallagency/post?article_id=136559
You can follow Phil Johnson on Twitter: @philjohnson.
