Social media sites might all seem like YouTwitFace to you – confusing, and hard to keep up with. Yet as confusing as it may seem to some, social media, (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) can be a good form of communication. But take caution! While it is easy to look at Facebook’s 500 million unique visitors and want to immediately begin social marketing, it is important to remember that the best way to leverage this tool, and maximize reach in your target audience, is through a strategic mix of marketing tactics.

Social media has become a powerful tool in the marketers’ toolbox, complementary to other channels of communication, like direct mail. In fact, campaigns combining direct mail and the Internet yielded up to 25-percent higher response rates than Internet alone. Social media sites like Facebook are different from traditional marketing because it is a conversation. This gives companies the ability to listen and respond to their customers’ needs and make adjustments to their campaign.

But since it is a conversation, social media cannot be just one sided. Marketers sometimes confuse this and simply approach social media as another promotional tool. Using social media strictly to send marketing messages doesn’t work. The moment people feel they are being marketed to, they will turn you off.

That is why you can’t just rely on social media to run your campaign. You need more to keep it going and to penetrate different demographics. Having a mixed marketing campaign helps achieve this goal. It is known that 96-percent of generation Yer’s are on social media, but considering 70-percent of Facebook users are not in the United States that can leave approximately 150 million Americans not in touch with social media, making it important to integrate. By doing so you can capture more information on your customer, raise direct mail and social media responses, and give your customers somewhere to go when they read your messages.

Marrying the two lets marketers become more targeted and strategic with their dollars. Social media and printing are now more than ever interdependent with one another. Even Kopytek has joined the social revolution tying in our blog, twitter account and direct mail pieces to communicate with our customers. And if you think like Conan O’Brian, and feel that someday Youtube, Twitter and Facebook will merge to form one super time wasting website called YouTwitFace, give us a call or message us at @kopytekstl on twitter and we can help.