Published in 1837, Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes tells the tale of two weavers who present a non-existent suit of clothes to the Emperor with the caution that the suit is invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent. As the Emperor parades in his underwear no one dares to say that they see no clothes-with the exception for one small child who exclaims; "he isn't wearing anything at all." Fast forward to the present day and business owners and managers around the world are told that anyone who cannot see the benefits of social media marketing are unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent. As organizations, brands and products fill the social media landscape with meaningless, objectiveless drivel that has interest to no one and serves only to waste resources and alienate customers, a small voice can be heard exclaiming; "who told you that was a good idea?" The caveat to this contemporary tale is that for a very few organizations, brands and products, social media has provided a kind-of marketing panacea. Correction: make that a very, very few organizations. For the rest, they are metaphorically parading in their digital underwear. All is not lost however. Although many have been duped in a new clothes-esque sting, and that their social media marketing efforts are indeed, invisible-but marketing on social media might just be riding to the rescue.

Alan Charlesworth has been involved in what we now call digital marketing in either practical, training, research or academic roles since 1996. He currently teaches marketing at a UK university where he spends much of his time encouraging students to question the content of academic journals and text books--including his own. His website can be found at AlanCharlesworth.com