I titled this blog with the “viva” not so much becuase I want social media to live long and prosper but because an alumni of mine (that word is so lame, isn’t it? Alumni? It makes me think of New England parking lots, ladies in fur coats, kegs of beer and Homecomings) wrote a good blog recently on the Death of Social Media and I was listening to Coldplay at the time. No cleverness intended.

In his post, Joe points out that social media, for all the revolutionary fervour it generates, is really just another tool in a communications package. You should read it, if only becuase Joe is a great writer and one that I have long admired. Anywho, he caught me on the right day. As I was about to enter an update on Ping.fm, to hit my Twitter, FB and Linked In all at the same time, I realized that social media can be a) a bit overwhelming and b) a bit silly sometimes: how many goddamn profiles do I need?  I know as a freelance writer they’re a great tool, but it’s easy to forget that you can’t just ‘social media’ the day away and expect that to be a marketing strategy. Old-fashioned networking, meetings, laborious reading of newspapers and job postings, reaching out to friends and old colleauges and just plain advertising all have to be rolled into a social media strategy. You can blog your heart out, but it doesn’t really matter if no one knows where your blog is, or that you bother to put so much effort into it. So, thanks Joe, (and the ever-helpful mediabistro) for reminding me that yes Virginia, old-fashioned business tactics remain as important, if not moreso, than ever.

PHOTO: Flickr Creative Commons

Good article: Debunking Six Social Media Myths (Businessweek)