Way back in 1975, BusinessWeek published an article called The Office of the Future. That article stated “Some believe that the paperless office is not that far off.” and touted one expert who predicted “by 1990, most record-handling will be electronic.” Now, predicting the role of technology in social change with date specific accuracy is no easy task and criticizing those predictions with 20/20 hindsight is unfair. However, 19 years later and counting, it’s just totally incorrect. Not even close.

History is now repeating itself again with the predictions, claims, rants, and raves over “social marketing” and “social media”. Social marketing is absolutely an accelerating phenomenon and a rule changer/breaker from traditional marketing concepts (not entirely though). It has already accumulated numerous success stories for those that have not only embraced it early, but embraced it well.

However, to go as far as many have and claim and push an agenda that states “traditional marketing is dead” is just a bit too naive and on the same plane as all manner of earlier predictions, like the one cited above.

Successful marketing, like most things on Earth is about balance. There are always marketing tactics that break that rule, but over time, they tend to revert back to the center, after they’ve made their breakthrough. So before you get the notion of abandoning everything that has to do with traditional marketing, think about a plan that can take the best of both worlds and achieve a balance that has the most effect on ROI. Otherwise, you might one day find yourself left hung out to dry (by your competition).