However, the definition provided of social marketing is an easily defeated straw man argument. Flopping the definition of “socialism” into the mix is a red herring. This isn’t clever; it’s obnoxious. The blog descends down the rabbit hole to a near-Luddite rant against a) evolving technology, and b) new distinctions.

At its core, a company’s social marketing efforts (whether B2B or B2C, and clearly differentiated from individual efforts) are a combination of traditional PR and customer service. They are new technology platforms, that ironically enough, require companies to pay attention with more human capital. It cannot be automated. However, if you show me a company that is a) unwilling or incapable to tell its own story, or b) listen to and take care of its own customers, I’ll show you a company that has shipped itself overseas and/or exists as a dimininshed version of its former self.

I don’t know your age, but you sound like an old-school exec with time on his hands.

You made your point–don’t waste my time with social media–and should have let it stand. Or delegated your piece to an editor for pruning.

Gotta keep an open mind and selectively learn new tricks.

And there is a fair amount of cynicism and doubt in the article about technology and new ideas which could be interpreted as an excuse to not deal with the author’s resistance to change or lack of understanding about new media. But it is hard to tell because the author goes back and forth arguing both sides. It seems like he only likes sure things based on quantifiable results and hates abstract, qualified outcomes.

Change and shift happens. Social Media does work as a promotional tool for B2B and B2C businesses. But like any tool it not right for every business. And for businesses it does work for it must be used via the ‘rules of engagement’ in the new media era, not by the old media rules. There is no right way to do the wrong thing. But there are many wrong ways to do the right thing. A lot of naysayers about social media (or other Internet Marketing tactics) tried it, did it wrong, and concluded it is an ineffective media, rather than their botched methods that caused the disappointing results.

In case you’ve decided to skip though to the comments, I’ll give you a synopsis in the form of an analogy:

“I don’t like the way people talk about cars so casually, because I’ve wasted a lot of money in the past on shifty mechanics.”