The new marketing basics?

Is anything about Internet marketing traditional? Or is it all so new that we need to keep following it like a bouncing wave that moves to something different every year? Ask yourself whether you just move with the trends or whether there really is a new set of marketing basics. And are we serving our clients and our companies by what we are doing?

We are in a transitional state in so many ways. We have new leadership in Washington, we are trying to maneuver our way through a very tough economy and as Internet marketers we are all trying to get our arms around new opportunities that change at a ridiculous pace.
There is so much talk about social media and the variety of opportunities that exist. If you truly buy into all the hype you would think that there is no way that you can’t succeed given all of the new ways to reach and interact with customers. We as Internet marketers have a tendency to have what I call BADHD – business attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Now please don’t get all upset and think I am being insensitive to those who have ADHD. I am not. I was once a 7^th grade teacher so I know it better than most.
In Internet marketing we all talk to each other as if we are all working on enterprise level accounts 24/7 which is something that is just simply not true. We act as if we are all supposed to embrace the latest and greatest without even giving some other techniques a chance to bloom. We are marketing gadget hunters and nomads who think that as soon as something else shinier comes along that it’s the new best and greatest way to do things at all levels.
So with all this change that happens at the speed of well, speed I guess, are there really new marketing basics that are pushing traditional things (even traditional Internet practices as well) to the side? I have been asking myself this question for a while now because I have been distracted by all the latest trinkets and baubles that I think that I may be flying right over the heads of the market I serve most which are small-to-medium business or enterprise accounts.
If I go into these folks leading with all the bells and whistles whether they are a prospect or an existing client am I truly doing them a service? By introducing Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn am I serving to keep them away from doing the basics correctly first? I see a real danger here of taking the square peg and jamming it into the round hole and possibly doing some harm. Three things that cannot be wasted in the current state of affairs are time, money and talent. Of course this is never desirable but in the current economy there is little or no wiggle room anymore.
I am going to make sure that my clients are doing the basics of Internet marketing that best serve their specific need. It may be as simple as making sure all of their local search bases are covered. It may just be that a short-term PPC campaign could serve them to get through this difficult stretch. It may serve them best to do some very basic SEO to insure they are foundationally sound and then helping them address other opportunities that work in unison to create success they need.
So with all the new marketing tools at our disposal are we creating a new set of marketing basics or are we distracting ourselves from the basics that already exist? What are your thoughts?