Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is a lot more complicated than any other form of online promotion and few companies have recognised this. Partly because it deals with multi-facet areas, such as vertical search (based on algorithms), viral and conversational marketing, content generation and sharing, as well as brand association and reputation management. There is a need to engage, interact, blend in, create rapport and then sell the targeted idea, the feeling, the thought. Participation marketing. Community interaction requires several professional skills:

1. Marketing skills are of essence and the reason is self explanatory

2. Sociology skills required for understanding the role of individuals within communities and the community dynamics. The unwritten laws of what is acceptable and what not. What adds value and why.

3. Public relations skills for reputation management and brand building. Making the right choices through a crisis and the best choices when you build a strong name.

4. IT skills and knowledge of the platforms to keep up with technological advances and new opportunities. The time to react is of essence. You need to be there before competition becomes unmanageable. Early adopters always win points.

5. Let’s not forget that we are selling something. Unless you are doing social media marketing for brand building purposes only, you need to still drive revenue to justify the investment. So promoting the product or service is the priority and it is easy to lose focus and over-promote. Equally, not thinking about sales can lead to lost business hours and no additional funds.

So when thinking about an individual or an agency to drive your participation marketing campaigns, think about experience, knowledge and ability.

Do they have the skills required?

After all, all that is at stake, is your company’s reputation.