Have you ever read an article that just made you cringe? That's how I felt this morning when 3 Things Your 'Social Media Expert' Won't Tell You About Growth found its way into my newsfeed. The article essentially urges readers to be lazy, do less and ignore trends in order to have a successful social media marketing campaign. This advice is not only insulting to all social media marketers, it is setting your business up for failure! So what should you do?
1. Be Active- Social Media isn't Field of Dreams it's Sparta. The internet will not bring customers to you. If this was the case, there would be less failure in the start-up world. To be successful in any marketing campaign, you must formulate a plan, identify your target market, determine saturation levels by platform and outline methods to not only reach, but also engage the end-user.
2. Narrow Focus - While I agree that the internet is a vast universe filled with never-ending content, articles and, many times, noise, I do disagree that doing less, as the article in question suggests, will get you more. Rather than doing less, I, as a self-proclaimed 'social media expert', will tell you to narrow focus. Again, going back to formulating a plan - finding your niche will cut through the noise and get your message to your customer in the most effective way possible.
3. Monitor Trends - Even basic internet marketing fundamentals are evolving rapidly. Take for instance search engine optimization. SEO is going social and there is nothing we can do about it. I couldn't say it better than a recent Forbes article:
"Google is pulling the rug out to provide better search for their audience. They are routing out the counterfeiters. Now it must be real, valuable, content, and lots of community value and interaction."
Read more from Adam Torkildson, one of the top SEO consultants in Utah and one of the best in the country, here.
The point that the author was admittedly trying to make was that social media marketing experts ignore basic marketing fundamentals. While that may be true for low-level consultants that work for pennies an hour, it's not true for those of us who work diligently developing strategy that focuses on the current market trends, researching the ever-changing saturation levels of your target market and revising said strategy to maximize your return on investment.
How are you going to stay in tune with your current consumer, let alone source new ones, if you don't know how to find them? Each industry, target market, and company specific goals are different. A comprehensive & elastic strategy will yield a much higher return than being lazy, doing less and ignoring trends as the other 'expert' suggests and I'm sure my clients on oDesk would agree.
I'm eager to hear your take on this. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken. - Frank Herbert
~Angela