Companies need to decide how and what they want to communicate with their (potential) customers. For software, it's easy... You tease the upcoming and do it via blogs and yearly shows.
For a company that makes paper products... What exactly are you going to communicate? It's not like people ever get excited about new 32# paper or anything. (Actually, I suppose scrapbookers might get excited about new shades or styles, but I doubt they're your core market.)
Marketing has gotten away with just saying 'But you have to advertise!' and having people think it's magic and that you don't have to think about what you're saying. Blogs, Twitter, etc don't let you get away with that. It's actual communication, not just 1-way like tv ads. That means it can be both more effective and less, depending on how well you do it.
It was really annoying when the company I worked for last year told us all to 'follow' them on their latest social account. A blog, facebook, and twitter. Really? You really think that people give a fuck about your latest value-add print marketing data hygiene curation enhancement? Unless you're an Apple or some game developer, It's only your employees and some industry top management that read that shit. What a waste of time.
For a company that makes paper products... What exactly are you going to communicate? It's not like people ever get excited about new 32# paper or anything. (Actually, I suppose scrapbookers might get excited about new shades or styles, but I doubt they're your core market.)
Marketing has gotten away with just saying 'But you have to advertise!' and having people think it's magic and that you don't have to think about what you're saying. Blogs, Twitter, etc don't let you get away with that. It's actual communication, not just 1-way like tv ads. That means it can be both more effective and less, depending on how well you do it.