Max Kalehoff is one of those people who is followed by many in the marketing/tech world. He is currently VP of Product Marketing at Syncapse… one of those fairly unheard-of tech companies that is really changing things.
Max recently published a paper for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Future of Advertising 2020 Program. His paper entitled 11 Big Trends That Will Reshape Advertising In 2020 And Beyond has garnered a lot of attention. Over the next few blog posts, I will attempt to take each one of his eleven points and give it my interpretation from the nonprofit Development perspective. Let’s take a peek into the future together.
4. Social Media Marketing Will Cease To Exist. Like digital marketing, we’ll soon all be doing less “social media marketing”. Marketing and media are inherently social — to one degree or another. Social is simply an aspect of all the marketing we do. We’re social beings.
Again, very short and sweet but LOADED with insights and new perspectives for nonprofit fundraisers who today still depend on direct mail appeals. Even those organizations that today are bringing in 90%+ of their donations through direct mail appeals have launched Facebook, are using email blasts and other social and digital marketing methods, and are already into their second or third generation Web site. Nonprofit fundraisers are just getting started in this new digital world and along comes this respected voice in marketing saying, “we’ll soon all be doing less ‘social media’ marketing.”
What does he mean by that? He can’t mean what he says?
Actually, Mr. Kalehoff means exactly what he is saying. So this trend that will reshape nonprofit fundraising is either a real wake up call or a gut-check for those nonprofit fundraisers who continue to believe that direct mail will last forever. Max Kalehoff doesn’t even mention old media, but he has the audacity to jump over old media like direct mail and tell us that the NEW social media will soon cease to exist.
Huh?
Sometimes we forget that, in the commercial sector, they do not have the government-supported economic advantage of reduced postage, so they have been using and incorporating the new digital online tools and social media platforms into their marketing since each was launched.
Mr. Kalehoff is looking out seven years and saying at some point in the not-too-distant future the “norm” will be that social media will become so integrated into your marketing communications that you won’t think about social media as a distinct element of your marketing communications.
Now you need to ask yourself, “how does that LOOK in my fundraising organization?”
If, essentially, all your communications are social [“Social is simply an aspect of all the marketing we do. We’re social beings.“], doesn’t that seem, feel, or look very different, not just in how you execute marketing communications, but organizationally as well?
-Mike
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Aside from that, social media is such a fundamental shift in the way the world communicates, if you don’t engage now, some sources suggest that businesses without a social media presence will cease to exist in 5 years time.
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