President’s Message: Imagine this picture: you are driving into work early Monday morning and suddenly your smartphone beeps. You know you just received some form of text or email update, so at the next stop light, you check.

With a simple click, you open the notification and instantly pictures of pure bliss replace the Monday-morning-drive-to-work-fog in your mind: Your favorite bakery just glazed their warm doughnuts and have a dozen waiting just for you!

Well, not just for you, but as one of their Facebook friends, you’re included in all of the fun little things they do. From fresh doughnuts to specials on holiday cakes and pies to business lunch discounts for their faithful friends and fans, this bakery seems to always have something going on.

It must be expensive to do this type of marketing, right? Not at all. The baker took 15 seconds to send an update from his flip phone via a free social media account and let Facebook do the rest.

Does this type of marketing work? I have two answers: “Absolutely yes,” and “more and more as the days go by.”

Social Media. Depending on what you read, it is a stroke of marketing genius that is here to stay or it is just a fad that is already starting to decline.

I say do not fool yourself: Social media is a fad, just like television, radio, newspapers, email and constant contact were. Did you catch that?

If you are in business today, chances are your customers range from the “Greatest Generation” to “Generation Z” (i.e., the folks born in the mid 1990s through 2010).

While every generation likes to know what is going on, surveys show they look in different places to get their information. For some, it is television. For others, it might be the business section in The Times Record. Still others will read the news online, and yet others rely on association newsletters or emails.

Or, if you’re like some people, you try to get a little of all of the above so you are “well rounded.”

What all of this equates to, at least in my experience, is information overload. Our minds get filled with thousands of pictures and neat quotes and upcoming events … it is just too much for any one person to handle.

So, we shut down as our subconscious mind tries to figure out where to “file” and prioritize all the information. In the process, we forget what is going on right in front of us.

Enter the freshness and simplicity of a text or notification: “ I have your fresh glazed doughnuts waiting for you.”

To which I say, “What the heck, I’m in the car anyhow. I might as well stop by and get something for the crew!”

And that, my friends, is the power of social media.

Our traditional media is still very important — it isn’t going anywhere soon — but it seems to me some of today’s products have gotten “too big” and less user friendly. That is where social media comes in: simple, just a few words, a reminder, or an update.

I think every business should at least explore reaching out to their customers using texting, Facebook, Twitter and to some extent, LinkedIn. It doesn’t matter if you are selling insurance, tires, food, books or promoting a charitable event, I truly believe an organized social media campaign can help.

Am I saying abandon traditional marketing?

Absolutely not! All the data shows that a successful marketing campaign uses multiple sources — print, web, emails, personal outreach, etc.

What I am saying is look at adding social media to your marketing mix. It will give you a new outreach dimension that you don’t currently have … and, I hope, more of the type of customers you want.

The Chamber proudly serves 660 businesses and organizations in the following communities: Arrowsic, Bath, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Brunswick, Dresden, Edgecomb, Georgetown, Harpswell, Phippsburg, Richmond, Topsham, West Bath, Westport Island, Wiscasset and Woolwich.

news@timesrecord.com

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