“Face to Face Interfacing is Obsolete”
Anyone watch “King of the Hill” on Sunday? It definitely could have doubled as an infomercial for MySpace, which is coincidentally owned News Corp. (The parent company of Fox Broadcasting, too). The skinny: Strickland Propane was losing business to a rival that was using social networking. So the company launched its own MySpace page.
And of course, in typical Hank Hill fashion, the gang all learned how tough it is to maintain a place in cyberspace… and what could happen when a disgruntled former employee still controls the domain.
Here’s a clip of Hank and his neighbors talking about Myspace (and by the way, this is a scene I see from my living room window… Arlen, TX can be any suburban area!):
Sure, as a marketer, you’re thinking “This episode screams of 2003,” with the gang in Arlen just discovering MySpace. But that’s part of the glory of King of the Hill. The characters can be in a time warp and then discover someone like Adam252 lives in the neighborhood.
One of the lessons learned in the episode, “Lost in MySpace,” (viewed in its entirety below) is that social networking will not completely replace face-to-face interaction. yes, it can help enhance a relationship, help increase exposure, but it’s not going to take over all of marketing as we know it.
Think about it from your own perspective. Do you respond to ads on your Facebook page, or ignore them? Do you trust those as much as you trust gool ol’ fashioned Google ads? And if you’re in either MySpace or Facebook (or both), do you embrace brands that set up promotional pages, or see social networking as a safe haven from advertising messages?
I think as a marketer, you should proceed with marketing in social media networks with caution and care.
What do you think?
