As Social Media and the constant connection to technology continue to change our daily lives, it is only natural that Marketing should change as well. Ten years ago, Social Media Marketing didn’t even exist – but when consumer behavior adapts, marketers need to follow suit. When your target market is spending hours on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, it would be silly not to take advantage of that.

The world and lifestyle of the average consumer has changed dramatically over the course of the past few years. Consider, for example, what a long, strange trip it’s been from my world to my son’s.

When I was in college I remember calling home once a week by using the payphone down the hall. Nowadays students have their smartphones within two feet of them 24/7. When I needed to do research, I made the long walk to the library, while all my son has to do is go to his laptop and start typing and he has the world at his fingertips.

Young people today communicate by texting; they don’t call each other and chat. I will admit, it is convenient – sometimes it is not necessary to have an entire conversation – just a quick response will suffice. Texting is less disruptive if you are busy and I find my son will definitely respond to me by text more so than a phone call. If he is with his friends, they won’t even know he is texting his mother!

Facebook is very interesting to me. I have been able to catch up with old high school and college friends. I also keep in touch with extended family members I would otherwise not be able to, so in that aspect, I think it’s great. However, young people have to be conscientious about what they post because colleges and future job prospects search profiles to see what the applicant is like. They also must be aware of their privacy settings. So be careful what you post!

I think it might be harder to have relationships today because it is online for everyone to see. You are “in a relationship” one day, then you are “single” the next. When you change your status, friends can comment “what happened?” and if you are still “friends” with your ex, there could be a back and forth exchange and everyone feels the need to chime in. Yikes. No thanks. Does my son really have 1200 friends? What is a friend anyway? It used to mean something like this: “a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection.” Now with Facebook it has become a verb meaning “to add someone to a list of contacts associated with a social networking website.”  Watch this for South Park’s humorous take on Facebook:

So, today you don’t talk to people on the phone, you text them, you friend people who may or may not be your friends in real life, and you discuss your personal relationships publically.

I love my high tech gadgets so I would not want to go back to the way it was.  Since I’m in the business, I’m excited too about the potential of Social Media Marketing.

I just hope that we do not lose the ability to communicate effectively with each other in the process of going down this “on-demand” road.