Twitter and Facebook are mainstream when…

…your parents are using them?

Check out this latest TV spot from Verizon and see if it resembles anyone you know. (e-mail subscribers, click on this post's headline to view the spot.)

Anyone who thinks that social media, Twitter, Facebook and all the rest are just a fad better think again. They are now regular features on every major news channel, newspaper and are popping up in TV shows (I saw a Twitter reference on Psych the other night.) and TV spots.

The question is — what does that mean for you? Is this going to change your entire life? Will you never market your products or services through traditional media again? Is your audience waited with bated breath (I always preferred the visual of baited breath, but…) for you on Facebook?

No, no and again….no.

As marketers, I think it is very important that we keep all of this in perspective. Social Media offers us new opportunities. But we can be authentic and transparent (the top 2 buzz words of the SM movement) on a radio spot or with a flier too.

Social media is now pretty main stream. That doesn't mean it is the only fish in the stream. Keep your options open. Even if your parents are your Facebook friends! (like mine are!)

Update: See what Jeremiah Owyang is saying on this topic. (Hat tip to Andy Drish for pointing me to this.)