Today’s consumer has unprecedented access to information and an ever-expanding universe of tools for sharing opinions. Don’t be deceived by word-of-mouth’s quaint handle: social technology has turbocharged the classic marketing concept. Brian Solis and JESS3’s colorful Conversation Prism (featured image) shows the array of social networks, blogs, wikis, apps, and other online services that have considerable power to influence brands. 

Savvy brands are embracing a diverse set of services to shape the conversation. In our experience, the most successful ones consistently do the following four things well:

1. Employ and integrate a diverse set of channels and media – social, online video, TV, radio, outdoor, print, and other channels are all levers along the consumer journey. Use them to feed and reinforce each other and to encourage consumer engagement.
2. Define a cohesive marketing technology strategy – Your people, partners, processes and technology are interconnected. Use technology aligned with your business objectives and operations to support the long term success of your programs. Gartner’s helpful Digital Marketing Transit Map overlays business and technology considerations.
3. Think big – Find your brand’s inner visionary. Set an ambitious agenda like Coca-Cola’s 2020 Content Initiative and socialize it.Effective planning and testing new concepts in channels with less reach mitigates risk. Release and iterate.
4. Be prepared – When Oreo’s Super Bowl moment arrived, their team was ready. Real-time success doesn’t happen in an instant. 

Adapting your marketing strategy to our helter skelter digital world may appear to be a daunting task, but marketers big and small are conquering the chaos and complexity every day by choosing complementary tools, evolving their organizational structure, and challenging themselves to act on new ideas and initiatives.