USPS Doesn’t Think Much of Social Media…

I love reading magazines… always have.Could be anything from Chess Lovers Monthly to Time to The American Philatelist. Doesn’t matter if the issue is months or even years old… I’ll read it.

I tell you all that because the other day someone gave me a copy of Deliver… A Magazine For Marketers, as per their tagline. It’s published by the U.S. Postal Service. You know, the ones who want to raise rates again because, God forbid, they get their own act in order… nah, ‘let’s just raise the rates again.’

It was an older issue of Deliver, dated June 2010 and almost immediately the following quote jumped out at me like that alien jumping out of that guy’s stomach in that movie…

“Social media takes up more time than it does money.”

Now the wordsmith in me wondered aloud… “Isn’t there a word missing? Shouldn’t it read ‘“Social media takes up more time than it does generate money.” Or something like that?

Another line that got set my blood to boiling was this one…

“The real danger with social media is in marketers expecting too much from it.”

A few weeks ago I wrote a post for Social Media Today entitled “Find Social Media Sand, Insert Head.”

In the aforementioned article, I told of posting a query on LinkedIn in which I asked “What’s the first thing you think of when you hear ‘Social Media?’”

You can read for yourself the astonishing responses I got and it’s quite obvious that the good folks at the USPS have their collective heads in the Social Media Sand as well.

Still not convinced. Think the USPS is just defending its turf by merely asking folks if Social Media is worth it?

Well on the last page of this particular issue of Deliver was a full-page image entitled “Last Word > Found in the Trash.” It shows a crumpled piece of paper with a chart labeled “Percent of Adults Who Use Social Media, 2005-2009.” Above the chart is written “Why are we paying so much attention to this if HALF the population isn’t?”

The scribbled answer: ” ’Cause it’s the cool new thing.”

Yes, Social Media is the new, cool thing… although I would argue it’s not so new anymore… at least not to me. But to hang your hat on “half the population isn’t (using Social Media)” is incredibly short-sighted. It’s like… having your head in the sand.

I’ve written and said aloud countless times before, Social Media is not some panacea that will cure all your advertising and marketing woes. It has to be used wisely and in connection and conjunction with other mediums.

• Print
• TV
• Direct Mail
• Email
• Radio
• Outdoor
• Mobile
• And on and on and on…

There is no one single medium that will give you the desired results you look for… the key is to mix things up a bit.

Life’s too boring to do just one thing all the time, isn’t it?

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Tags: Deliver, Deliver Magazine, Direct Mail, linkedin, social media, social media today, U.S. Postal Service, USPS

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