“Advertising is shifting from being the foundation of a corporate marketing strategy to a catalyst that feeds owned media and creates earned media.” – Sean Corcoran, Forrester Research

Advertising now comes after the corporation has created an ecosystem for its owned media channels (e.g., a blog, a Twitter handle, a Facebook Fan Page).

Advertising now comes after the corporation has an established rapport with its fan base, bloggers, and traditional media contacts.

Advertising now comes after relationships.

Tellingly, the “Challenges” that Sean Corcoran points out regarding paid media — “clutter, declining response rates and poor credibility” are ameliorated if the brand takes the awareness scale approach in which: social media feeds PR and advertising, both of which serve to catalyze fresh brand conversations amongst people who are predisposed to do so.

With consumer and media relationships in place, advertisements then are not rebuffed but are embraced and carried forward by online enthusiasts. Sayonara, “clutter.”  So long, “declining response rates.” Bon voyage, “poor credibility.”

So, there’s no question that Social Media has complicated things in the marketing world.  The problem with complexity is that it too often leads to analysis paralysis. Sometimes you need to see concepts broken down to their simplest terms to come to grips with them.