Most organizations have no clue what Social Media Marketing (SMM) is, or how to plan a Social Media Strategy (SMS). Part of the reason most people cannot put a SMS together, is because they cannot put their head around the concept of what a SMS is. This whole new world of SMMing is so new and moving so fast, that just when you think you have got a grasp on a part of it, the target moves to the newest, latest, greatest thing. There are so many latest and greatest widgets, plugins, add-ons, templates and social sites coming out each and every day, that most of us cannot keep up.
It is stated that 75% of marketing professionals are now using social media as part of their marketing activities, and most of them have only been doing so for a few months, as of December of 2009. With this in mind most companies and individuals that are self pro-claimed social media experts (SME), have really only been so for a very short time and are for the most part just guessing on what Social Marketing should look like. If you try and use traditional (old-school) marketing in a social community you are going to be voted off the island (shamed out of the community). You must ease your way into the communities, and become a trusted advisor of the community (Read my blog “effectively using social tools to reach your audiences”)
It’s about conversation not direct selling
As fast as things are moving in the SMM arena, as well as how short the life span of SMM has been on the internet there are a few tried and true concepts to follow as of yet. As the world of SMS is unfolding before our eyes there are a few concepts in SMS that seem to be becoming hard and fast rules to SMS.
- Create and maintain a blog. It is a very good idea to use all your social tools to drive traffic to your blog. You blog should be providing informative information that also should be branding your business. Many companies are building their “business identity” via their blog as well as providing timely and useful information. Blogs take time to gain a following, and should have fresh content posted no less than 2 or 3 times per week and more if possible. Also allowing your followers of your blog to subscribe, retweet, dig, and email your blogs, to their friends is your best form of advertising when it comes to social marketing.
- Twitter. This tool is a great way to share relevant business news, and updates to your blog. Again this should not be a hard sell, but a tool to drive traffic to your blogs.
- Social Networks. Facebook, Youtube, and many other sites can be used to promote your business, and build customer loyalty.
- Forums. Finding topic relevant forums and becoming a value added contributor to the forum answering as many questions as often as possible, will again lead to customer loyalty. The goal is too noninvasively as possible lead people to your blogs, or web site.
As you might have seen from all the so called social media experts, that social media has very little cost or is free, but that is not really true if you count the time that it takes to build and maintain your social network it is not free. SMM is not like traditional advertising where you put your ad out there and it sits, such as an old-school web site. SMM is really an endeavor that you want to take on as a daily activity, and can become an all consuming activity if you do not set and plan some goals and a SMS to follow.
SMM should also not take the place of your traditional marketing champagnes, but should become a partner of your traditional marketing. Once a plan is in place for your SMM, you will find that both sides of your marketing will start to roll into and complement each other. All flyers, letterheads, blogs, footers, promotional material and business cards should mention at a minimum your company Twitter address, which in turn will lead them to your blogs and web sites.
There are many methodologies to social media marketing, and twice as many sites and widgets to get the job done on the internet, but keeping it simple and manageable is the key to success for any person or organization that wants to enter the world of social media marketing.
P.S. Don’t forget to check us out in Twitter and Facebook
