A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending a major social media conference. Naturally I saw it as a great opportunity to pick up new nuggets
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| Lori Walderich |
of wisdom from first-rate brains. And in this I definitely was not disappointed. Some of the most notable figures in the social media industry presented their thoughts on best practices for adding their sites and services to the restaurant marketing mix. I also saw the conference as a chance to step away from the incessant everyday chatter about the social media phenomenon and engage in a deliberate and measured assessment of how and when social media might fit seamlessly into our restaurant clients' overall media mix and brand strategy. I wasn't disappointed on this score, either. It certainly does seem that it's time to reassess social media. Over the past few years, the noise from and about it has grown louder and more confused, partly amped up by the proliferation of networking sites. A ripple that began as MySpace and Twitter, FourSquare and Facebook is now an engulfing tide of networking sites from the generic (Facebook) to the highly specific (the Christian site, Amen Me). The social media rush has reached such a fever pitch that Wall Street is raising questions about the real worth of players such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. A July 8 article in the New York Times reported that since going public at $122 per share, LinkedIn stock sunk to a low of about half that and now sits at $99.70, a price that analysts say could be still be inflated by up to 56 percent. Read Full : Social media: brand aid … or brand illusion? | QSRweb.com
