Is Social Media Marketing reaching its tipping point? 

For the past eight weeks or so, I noticed a HUGE upswing in the amount of social media marketing posts. For example . . . .

I’m no social media guru, but I’m no novice, either. I think what we’re seeing is a mix of three main ingredients:

  1. Marketers and tech geeks are enamoured with social media marketing, and so we keep hearing about it, and the necessity of corporate involvement at some level. 
    The problem with this: As marketers (or quasi-marketers) are susceptible to doing, we’re falling in love with the medium and losing sight of the message. Too many companies aren’t changing their crappy product, but rather they change where and how they talk about it. And then they’re shocked when it doesn’t work. 
  2. Companies are losing money and cutting back on their marketing budgets. They are finally open to this word-of-mouth thing that all the kids have been doing lately. 
    The problem with this: Yeah, WOM and Social Media may be cheaper in hard costs, but they cost you in time, experience and savvy. Doing it wrong can cost you way more than a bad 30 second spot in the Super Bowl. Companies want the output but still aren’t ready to put in the time and learning.  
  3. Social networks, Facebook especially, is no longer the playground of twenty-somethings. Everybody born after 1955 is on Facebook, it seems. 
    The problem with this: Nothing, actually. Accept that marketers will have to continue to target within the channel. But the fact that more and more people are ‘going social’ is the biggest cause for the tipping point.
  4. We have a new President who is embracing more efficient and relevant ways to communicate, and can point to a campaign that owes itself to embracing social media. 
    The problem with this: Again, nothing really. It’s actually pretty cool.  

So, what say you? Is social media peaking, or is this just the tip of the iceberg? What’s the best way you’ve seen it used for marketing purposes?