The sad news this week is that The Population, a social media agency in Sydney, will be closing its doors. I really feel that it is an unfortunate state of affairs that in an industry that is clearly booming and on the up and up, could not stand alone in the market.
I feel the fact that businesses in general still feel that social media appears to look like “play time” for it’s staff, or the agency that it is hiring. Coupled with the fact that there are many unscrupulous characters masquerading as experts and then basically auto registering branded channels and profile pages before jumping ship to a beach on the coast of some island.
It is actually very similar to the search marketing industry, with many abusing the system and the process in order for short term gains. Adding crazy expectations and immediate results that were never achieved, left a bitter taste in client’s mouths. But looking back now on around 10 years of search engine marketing and optimisation, we can see the fact that businesses would be crazy not to be taking search seriously. The industry involved, the snakes disappeared, and properly structured and specific campaigns are being setup and run effectively and generating a return.
Social media will get there - I am sure of it. We will look back on this time and comment how crazy it was that no business had someone sitting on their Twitter account and monitoring conversations and generating feedback. It would be crazy not to syndicate their content across all the available channels.
So I feel for the Population team, and I wish them all the best in their new endeavours. And soon, I am sure, the rise of the dedicated social media agency in Australia will occur, and the industry as a whole will benefit.
December 28th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I believe S&M businesses will eventually realized that social media should be part of their marketing strategy, a well-structure and well- carry social media marketing strategy can increase not only brand awareness but the interaction among customers and the business.