Here a few things for your consideration: 

- Social Marketing is not about a single, giant splash. It's about creating a constant drip...drip...drip of relevant information. Small but relevant information. Bite-sized bits of news, entertainment, product info, etc. that matter to that particular individual. If the information "matters," each drip creates a ripple. The end result is not one giant splash, but many, many ripples.

- Social marketing can cause a message to spread like wild fire. But often forgotten are the countless hours spent collecting each stick...piece by piece, twig by twig...before the fire can even be lit. Social marketing can certainly be one of the most effective ways to spread a message, but it takes a lot of time and a ton of effort before the "magic" that is social marketing can happen.

- You cannot apply traditional "push" marketing mentality to social marketing. Social marketing is not about pushing a message to an audience. It's about starting conversations, not with an audience, but with individuals. Conversations are two-way, they are push and pull...sharing and listening. Obviously pushing information is the easier part of the equation...pulling information from customers, engaging in true communication is where brands normally fall down. Why do they fall down? The fact is pulling is the hard work...marketers have honed their pushing skills for years, it's difficult to stop and listen...but that's a conversation for another day.

Overall, most marketers need to take a step back and reframe their thinking when it comes to social marketing. The principles of social marketing are not new, in fact they go back to the very roots of advertising and marketing, before mass media when all advertising was grassroots and word-of-mouth, person to person. Sure, the tools are new, but the principles are very much the same.