How Social is Digital Marketing?

I often describe my company, DIGIQOM, as into Digital Marketing- and then I often get this response:
"so, um, how different is it from, uh, say, online marketing?". I am often tempted to go into a whole discussion on how digital encompasses the web2.0 world of social media tools and also brings digital assets into play for traditional media vehicles.

then I get, a lot of " social media is gonna kill advertising and marketing" from the new-blogger types, hoping to make a living out of blogging, attending workshops, writing about them and then hoping Google Adwords will make them a decent lining- haven't heard of a blogger who made a million dollars blogging yet!


Or I get, "why do you even include social media, is there any credibility in any thing those bloggers who are hiding away from real world issues and creating a lot of noise in a virtual world, with virtual names?"

Truth is neither of the above is true! Social Media will remain experimental till there is a business case for large sponsors to come in and add credibility to it- that's right folks! the newspaper you read, the TV soaps you watch are paid for by advertisers and sponsors who believe those are credible vehicles for reaching an audience. I suspect, there will be at least 3 global blogs which become viable advertising vehicles- in whatever form or shape.

Second, the conversation styles of Social Media and the web2.0 tools will allow brand marketers, research their audiences much better, and offer a bouquet of well researched options to connect with their brand consumers with a strong central proposition that cuts across all vehicles and tools.

I have no examples to back either of the above outcomes, though I suspect scobleizer, and gigaom
might hit the SM top of the charts if they haven't already.
And a quickly unfolding story which I am tracking with keen interest is Dell's peer-2-peer conversational marketing attempt at ideastorm!
Keep watching!