Are we speaking to ourselves?

Every day you hear something about Web 2.0 or Social Networking tools and how companies or marketers should utilize them. You might even hear how great it is to use new media to reach your target market "where they live". But does your audience really want to hear from you in that method? Are they really going to respond to your Facebook postings or cell phone ads?

Check out the findings in ExactTarget's 2008 Channel Preference Survey. While many people use a variety of social media to communicate with friends, many prefer not to use these methods to be marketed to.

So when we use these avenues to market a service or product, is anyone actually listening to us? Ask first, why are we using blogs, TV, cell phone ads, or texts to reach our customers? Is it the best method? Or do we feel we need to jump onto that Social Networking train before it leaves the station and we're stranded?

Maybe we should reel-in our social networking marketing efforts and examine who we are really marketing to and why. Reduce the outreach to one outlet after deciding it's the best one for your product or service.

I'm just saying don’t get carried away or you might be speaking to an audience of one.