Social Media Marketing finally maturing?

Recently I read a WSJ article on Facebook which relates to their new interaction with the Advertising professionals in order to conceive and develop promotional activities, that are not only trackable and measurable but ROI analysis-ready.

Does it indicate that Facebook is maturing as a media?

Interesting though that according to this article, when the new initiative of Facebook to create a "Client Council," calling together senior advertising executives from 13 big brands and ad agencies, to find advertising approaches that will help measure the return on investment (as opposed to just rely on a leap of faith in the power of social),  Mr. Zuckerberg's response to a question from one of the attendees on how they will be able to measure the return on their investment in this initiative, was: "That's a great question and we should probably have an answer to that, shouldn't we?"...Well, that is a question that should have been asked a long time ago already but later is always better than never.

Do they really have the choice?

Not so much...They have to. Otherwise, Facebook will be a souvenir down the road...not a business model to look at for reference.

So are they maturing or not?

It always go back to the same concept where the key principles of effective marketing and advertising are applied:

A) It is always about The Right Product to the Right Target with the Right Message at the Right Time through the Right Channel

B) It has to be measurable like any investments

Where Facebook has to be careful is that not all marketing communications do or can have sale objectives attached to them and therefore are more ready for ROI analysis...Sometimes a message has the singular objective to make the audience aware or knowledgeable about a product or an offer...and then other communications after that will bring the target to the purchase stage. The 1st message can not have a direct revenue or sales objective attached to it.

Also, what could be the reaction of the consumers and the Facebook users if Facebook push "harder" on the advertising options that they propose to their clients and such users feel intrusion.

In fact, Facebook as a social tool does not need to do push harder...Now Facebook as a business has to. So the question is not if. The question is how.

If they can not make it work, unless they are able to be funded through donations, they will go away.

So are they maturing? Yes they are and like all of us, they have no choices...They might have to end up relatively smaller and profitable. The jury is out but they make the right moves!

Integration of offline and online marketing...The biggest challenge or is it?

So much paper and ink are used to write about the integration of offline and online marketing channels in a coherent mix...Even if 2 years old, a survey by Aprimo on the biggest challenges CMOs face indicated the following (in order): 1) Integrating & tracking multiple channels and 2) Doing More with Less.

Those multiple challenges are surely closely related the emergence of Digital Marketing like Internet, Mobile or Social Media...and the disturbance that those new channels mean in terms of sales funnel.

Well, let me throw some ideas to you:

* The purpose of Advertising (as a communication method) is singularly to create awareness. Can you do it offline, online or mobile? You sure can but it is still advertising.

* The purpose of Public Relations is singularly to generate goodwill from the business stakeholders. Can you do it offline, online or mobile? You sure can but it is still PR.

* The purpose of Sales Promotion is singularly to temporarily boost sales. Can you do it offline, online or mobile? You sure can but it is still Sales Promotion.

* The purpose of Direct Marketing is singularly to generate immediate response. Can you do it offline, online or mobile? You sure can but it is still Direct Marketing.

* The purpose of Word Of Mouth is singularly to make people recommend to people. Can you do it offline, online or mobile? You sure can but it is still Word Of Mouth.

So the point is simple. Behind all the smokes for the new tools, there is this core principle that one needs to use the right communication methods for the right purposes and that the media consumption of the target that you are aiming at, dictates if you should go offline, online and social media or any mix of those 3.