First of all, the Long Tail idea has been around for the past 50 years, but Chris Anderson coined the phrase in 2004 in a Wired magazine article. He explains how selling to a niche market is useful to companies such as Amazon or Netflix who sell a lot of unique items. They found that a demographic of people who would buy more of the non popular “non hit” items. From this the Long Tail was formed.

Social Media has helped many companies reach their customers in ways that they never realized was possible. New ways of connecting and marketing are being created everyday to reach more and more of the long tail of products and services. As these new ways of interacting with customers evolve and grows it takes some of the traditional market. The days of TV ads is dying due to services like TiVo, E-mail marketing is eliminated by spam blockers, direct mail gets thrown away and online advertising gets looked over or eliminated with RSS readers. We have to start changing with the times. The days of interrupting us over dinner with a phone call or commercial are not over, but dying.

As social media gets bigger at some point doing old school marketing will actually become the Long Tail, the way of reaching the minority. I’m not saying it’s today or even tomorrow, but in the coming future these two markets will swap. There will never be a time where advertising, direct mail or telemarketing will completely fade off the scene but pretty soon we will be putting it on life support.

Now you may be asking what can I do? We have many of the products available above and have a team of designers at our fingertip to create and mold your marketing vision. If you want to take things into your own hands I would suggest starting by creating a LinkedIn account, Facebook fan Page, and start Twittering. These are all great tools to start you off in social media that will help you get to the Long Tail of your customers. Now these all take your time and energy, but what would you rather part with, your time or your money. The way the market is now, I sure hope it’s your time, but if it’s not be sure to call us and we’ll gladly help with you with your money.

Nick Footer
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