You’ll often notice than when a new web service or marketing strategy gets starts getting some buzz, it will often be referred to as a "_____ killer", when in most cases this turns out to be greatly exaggerated or just plain wrong. For marketers, it’s important not to get too caught up in this kind of mentality, because as long as you have an audience and they can still be reached through some channel, that channel is alive and well.

WebProNews had a conversation with Google’s Avinash Kaushik and former Googler Vanessa Fox just after the State of the Search Union keynote at SMX West last week, and talked about this very principle. Kaushik put it well in that marketers who think of their strategies in terms of "and" will win, and those who think in terms of "or" will lose. In other words, your apt to find greater success in combining strategies than focusing too heavily on one.

This seems like a fairly obvious point, but it’s easy to get caught up in the hype of the moment, and place too much emphasis on the importance of whatever that hype may be centered around. That’s not to say said hype should be ignored, because new strategies can certainly increase brand awareness, conversions, etc, if you can leverage them in a way that makes sense for your business. However, it’s important not to shift too much focus always from channels that are already working well for you, or those you are still improving upon that show promise.

As discussed in the clip above, the lines are blurring among types of marketing, and it’s becoming more and more about simply "marketing" rather than just "search marketing" or "social media marketing" or fill-in-the-blank marketing.