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Everything we’re seeing and hearing in the channel partner and IT manufacturer space is that everyone’s going “social.” Computer software and hardware companies, we published last week, are increasingly turning to this form of marketing. Fifty-five percent of them, according to a MarketingSherpa survey, are increasing their social media marketing budgets, with only 5 percent cutting back.

But, what are they hoping to accomplish?

That’s been the unanswered question for IT manufacturers and resellers. Everyone knows that social is the place to be, but few are sure of the reasons why. We’ve always maintained that social media marketing must be integrated into a company’s larger marketing plan and that clear objectives should be defined.

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The financial news has been great for serving up one dismal story after another. Consumers aren’t spending – which affects everyone – and unemployment’s at its highest point in more than a quarter of a century. If you follow this stuff too closely, you might miss the trend that matters most: IT spending is going up.

After two years of clamping down on technology budgets, businesses are investing in both software and infrastructure. Much of this is for “must-have” projects still, a side-effect of delaying upgrades and migrations because of market conditions. Look closely, though, and you’ll find a hidden opportunity for future account growth.

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Forget about blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and everything else for a moment. Platforms come and go, and linking your marketing future exclusively to a tool could leave you at the mercy of a company that isn’t your own. Instead, focus on the content, and use that starting point as a way to reach your target market on whatever platform has the highest potential. As they enter and fall from favor, the impact to your company will be minimal, and while your competitors are scrambling to adjust to a new reality, you’ll find the transition to be nearly effortless.

It’s hard to imagine the decline and fall of Facebook or LinkedIn. They are just too popular right now. And blogs … they’re everywhere. How could they ever go away? But, as you know, shifts in media and technology are a fact of life. Newspapers were once thought to be unassailable. In the social media space, we’ve seen patterns change already, too. Remember MySpace? Once upon a time, nobody could imagine anything replacing it – and the converse proved true with unprecedented speed.

Don’t misunderstand me on this one – social media marketing is important; it’s perhaps the most powerful development in business-to-business marketing since the commercialization of the internet. To write it off as a fad is to cede at least some of your business to the competition. But, you have to have a prudent approach to this space in order to win, and that starts with not pinning your entire social media marketing strategy to the success of the platforms you choose.

Instead, start with content.

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For more than a decade, the IT industry has been obsessed with the concept of “first to market.” I remember the late 1990s, in particular, where a company that wasn’t first to move was believed destined to follow, as early entrants would seize market share quickly, gain an edge on the upgrade path and block anyone with similar hopes from ever realizing them. The advantage that comes with being first isn’t as widely recognized as it was 10 years ago, but it nonetheless persists, if only in a diluted form.

When it comes to social media marketing, this has led several companies to surmise that it’s too late to use it to gain an edge. They winners have already been determined, they suspect. So, why would an IT reseller invest its already limited marketing resources in this type of endeavor?

Well, we have more than a decade of perspective on the first-mover advantage, and I can tell you confidently not to believe in it. You can succeed even if you’re late to the game – but wait too long, and you really are ceding the advantage to your competitors.

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