Wow, we have our own day. Mashable has announced that today is Social Media Day. The first question is, will anyone notice. It is very prominent on the Mashable site (first thing you see), so then I went to Facebook. Facebook has the ability to sent a message to everyone. I expected to see something announcing to the almost 500 million members that this was a very special day, a day celebrating what Facebook has helped shape – social networks. Alas, no global message, Facebook let the moment pass.

So I went to Twitter and checked my stream, and lots of social media, but not a lot of Social Media Day. Hmmm, how could Social Media Day go unnoticed. I checked CNN (online of course) They even link to Mashable and The Wall Street Journal (checking the technology sections of course). Then I went old school, I “Googled” Social Media Day and no major news media outlet (sorry KCTV Kansas City) came up, only Mashable.

So does this mean social media doesn’t work? No, it means social media doesn’t work in a vacuum. It is what I tell my clients. You want to be on Facebook, because if Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest country in the world. You want to be on Twitter, because you want to have the opportunity to meet people, influence people, show people that you are smart, funny, engaging, etc. – pick your adjective that best describes you. You also want to be on Twitter so that you can know what people are saying about you and your company and your product. You can’t respond if you are not a part of the conversation. You need to have a LinkedIn profile so other professionals can find you and know who you are and what you do. You want to have a YouTube channel so they can see you in action (keep checking back, I am editing our video!).

So why did my Google search yield only Mashable links (okay and KCTC), because Mashable forgot that the traditional media, and other social media outlets still look to old fashioned ways to be kept up-to-date: press releases, phone calls, personal interviews. Social Media works, you just need to use it in conjunction with more traditional forms of media if you want to be sure to get wall-to-wall coverage of your very first Social Media Day. Maybe next year, we will be everywhere!