Social Media Marketing. Are you really and expert?

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Image Credit: Junta42.com

There is an interesting term circulating on the Web lately. The term is Social Media Marketing and it has become the newest hip thing to offer clients. Many marketers are touting the skill. Is this wrong? No. Is it wrong to boast a skill that you really don’t have? Yes. That’s exactly the problem. Many are saying they offer it but don’t have a clue how to leverage it for business purposes.

I know that when I decided to offer “Social Media Marketing” as a service to my clients, I decided I needed to know as much about the inner workings of these social media sites as possible so that I could explain them to my clients in simple terms that they could understand. I immediately went to Amazon and bought as many books on services like Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter as well as books on the philosophy behind social media and how use it to grow your business. After all this reading was I ready to offer the service to my clients? No. I still had to test it out on my own brand first to make sure I was able to do it. Have I found success? Yes and no. Social Media Marketing isn’t an overnight task. Like Search Engine Optimization, it takes time to grow a community around yourself and your brand and gain their trust.

A good example of how I’ve slowly built up my brand and myself in social media is on Twitter. I’ve been a member of the microblogging service since September 2007. When I first signed up, it was merely to see what it was all about. I didn’t quite understand the power of it. Honestly, most didn’t at that time. Slowly I began to gain friends on the service and build relationships. About a year and a few months later I have 550+ followers and I’m slowly seeing the effects of my hardwork.

I’ve started to do some social media work for my clients and before I start I always tell them that it takes time. They won’t see results overnight and they need to be patient and actively participate in the discussions and discourse on these services. Honestly, if any “social media marketing guru” tells a client that they can do it overnight, show them the door.

I think “Social Media Marketing” is becoming a buzz term that is popular because it has a good ring to it. What bugs me is those Twitter users or Facebook users that say they’re social media gurus but have no website with examples of how they’ve applied it to their own company. Why would you hire someone to grow your company if they haven’t even tried to do it for themselves first.

The best test-subject is yourself. Before you go to market with a product try it out on yourself first. Iron out the bugs and figure out how you can apply it to other people. Only then do you market it to others. Not before.

Even with the growth of this new industry, people are going to continue to claim skills that they don’t really have. It’s up to the customers to find the ones that really are the real deal.

I want to hear your views on this. Please post your comments below!

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Tags: business, communications, experts, Facebook, growth, industry, linkedin, marketing, myspace, Social Media, social media marketing, Twitter

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 10:11 am and is filed under Facebook, Google, Internet, Opinion, Search Engines, Seth, Social Media, Twitter, Viral, Web 2.0, Web Design, Web Development, Yahoo, Youtube. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Brand4profit

The old method of advertising is interactive marketing. The term is misleading. Most people think it means that

there is some type of interaction on the part of the person advertised to, and there is. But, it is not

conversational. Instead, the advertiser wants you to interact with their campaign in a specific set of steps.

Following the call to action and visiting a website for instance. It's the push to make you do something. Live this

image. Buy this now.

Social Media Marketing is just the opposite. It's the pull of the tribe. The tribe already has your trust so the

actions they take are ones you align with. On a larger scale, it's the allure of belonging in the group as you take

action together. "I am doing this so why don't you do it with me?" On an individual level, the attraction is to

behave the same way to get the same results that benefits your fellow tribeswoman or tribesman. "She looks hot! I

want to look hot too. I want to go to her hairstylist" and you do. Social Media Marketing uses the power of

attraction.

While advertising tries to use the same tactic, with a billboard for instance, of a gorgeous woman telling you the

benefits of the salon, it doesn't have the same impact because it's pushing you to go. It is not pulling you in as a

trusted friend. Your friends have your best interests at heart and advertisers do not. Social Media Marketing is

based on building trust and that foundation will make Social Media a dominant player in Marketing.

Neal Wiser

The problem is that you're going to see a huge surge of so-called "Social Media" experts because:
1) it's the latest thing and everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.
2) the rising numbers of unemployed means that more people have more time to play, experiment with SM services and declare themselves an expert.
Unfortunately, having 500+ connections on LinkedIn or 500+ followers on Twitter does NOT mean that you know how to apply your SM skill sets to business and generate (or measure) an ROI.

goldsteinmedia

Neal, very true. That's why I say one needs to experiment on themselves and their own company before promoting it to other companies

carltonreid

Hi Seth

This is a bugbear of mine, too. Lots of self-proclaimed SEO experts out there as well. Then you look at their websites and number of Twitter followers and realise it's smoke and mirrors.

PS
When is Disqus gonna add a Twitter follow link on posts?

goldsteinmedia

That's so true there is a lot of smoke and mirrors out there. There's a lot of that in Web Design as well. It's important that those who do know what they are talking about to stand out above all of the crap.

PS

Disqus should have Twitter follow links eventually I hope!

carltonreid

Disqus does have the link but it's hidden. You have to click on the profile to see all the social media linkages.

However, I reckon Twitter is now mainstream enough to have its own, prominent link next to usernames. Or maybe there's a way to do this via some options. Can't say I've seen it.

Craig Sutton

Seth, I understand what you're saying. I have had enough people ask me about it that I decided to get involved. I decided to teach people the things I have learned, including what not to do, and let the client use the information to make an informed decision of how to pursue it further if they wish. It is a process, one that takes time. Took me near a year before Ifelt comfortable to talk to people about it. Timevwill tell if my approach works for my customers. I just feltbgiving them information was better than offering to do something they likely don't understand yet.

goldsteinmedia

I completely agree. It's a medium that needs to be addressed. You can differ on the terminology but it's out there. And most likely to stay