The Confusing Social Media Marketing Maze

The Social Media Marketing Maze can be confusing:

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Stability

Vernita Sherman has said that one problem with Social Media Marketing is that it isn't stable. Companies who built a large presence on MySpace found that it was eclipsed by Facebook within a few years. Facebook itself has made changes that affected businesses and new Social Media sites like Pinterest appear regularly.

Not a Sales Channel

Social Media is primarily a communications channel, not a marketing channel. When the channel is used for direct marketing, often these efforts fall flat.

Noting problems with Social Media, Sampad Swain has written:

"...before getting into social media, we should be aware of our goals...

• Is it to increase awareness and credibility?


• Is it to increase online conversations?


• Is it to create a community of unified spirits who may turn out to be evangelists?

... the easiest way to fail at ‘social media marketing’ is to use social media as a way to broadcast your marketing messages with a goal to sell more stuff!"

Great Expectations

According to David Mercer: "Business has now invested several solid years in social marketing. It's been a wild ride. Stories abound of incredible marketing successes, dismal social media failures, and everything in between." 

According to Mercer Social Media marketing doesn't work for business for various reasons, including:

1. Being great in social media doesn't trump good products and service


2. Publishing great content requires the skills and expertise of a publisher.

Businesses need to start looking at social media marketing as a link in the chain, instead of the whole chain itself.

What Works?

Clearly there are some winners in the Social Media Marketing arena:

Facebook: useful for judging customer trends and customer interaction. More difficult to use for direct marketing since users can only see your sales message if they click through on a Facebook ad.

One thing is certain, the Social Media landscape will continue to change, and may change into something we can't even imagine yet.

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Phillip Gwinn
phillipgwinn.blogspot.com/

Social Media Jobs in The Future

Social Media Jobs in The Future

The Last 10 Years

Just about 10 years ago Jonathon Abrams founded Friendster. Based on a “Circle of Friends” concept it was considered the top online Social Network until it was overtaken by MySpace in 2004. Also in 2004, a social networking site for Harvard students was launched, it was called FaceBook. By the end of the decade, Friendster had all but disappeared, and newer social media networks had long overtaken MySpace. About this time companies started to pay attention to Social Media, for customer service and later, for sales. 

The Next 10 Years

The next 10 years will probably see an expansion of Social Media, resulting in companies needing to integrate Social Media in their Marketing Plan. According to Nathan Brown, writing for arkarthick.com says you will need an array of skills:

1. You need to have a complete understanding about the platform(s), i.e. FaceBook, LinkedIn.
2. A passion towards public relationships, since Social Media is all about relationships with customers and potential customers.
3. The ability to use tools like Tweetdeck and Commun.it to analyze the relationships your company has with customers.
4. Ability to mine data and analyze it, this is Statistics.
5. Good marketing skills: Build and Online Brand and be able to promote it.
6. A keen eye for content: Content is Everything Now.
7. Knowledge of Web design: You’ll need to use and be able to teach people how to use the tools for design.
8. Keep up with the current trends: Possibly the most important since the Social Media world changes all the time.

 

Throw Out the Old Job Titles

John Wilpers is CEO of Degrees 2 Dreams, a company that leverages social media strategies for recent college graduates recommends this 5- step process for finding a job in Social Media:

1. A resume with QR Codes: one taking hiring mangers to a video of you and another link to a video with references.
2. A “Me” Site that serves as a digital portfolio.
3. A Professional Blog that showcases your skills and builds a professional network.
4. A Social Media Marketing Campaign that promotes You.
5. A campaign to interview industry professionals to find out what you have to do to get a job.

According to Thomas Friedman, writing in the New York Times: “They (employers) are all looking for the same kind of people — people who not only have the critical thinking skills to do the value-adding jobs that technology can’t, but also people who can invent, adapt and reinvent their jobs every day, in a market that changes faster than ever.
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Phillip Gwinn
Lighthouse Media

Special Skills Needed for Social Media Jobs in The Future

Special Skills Needed for Social Media Jobs in The Future

The Last 10 Years

Just about 10 years ago Jonathon Abrams founded Friendster. Based on a “Circle of Friends” concept it was considered the top online Social Network until it was overtaken by MySpace in 2004. Also in 2004, a social networking site for Harvard students was launched, it was called FaceBook. By the end of the decade, Friendster had all but disappeared, and newer social media networks had long overtaken MySpace. About this time companies started to pay attention to Social Media, for customer service and later, for sales. 

The Next 10 Years

The next 10 years will probably see an expansion of Social Media, resulting in companies needing to integrate Social Media in their Marketing Plan. According to Nathan Brown, writing for arkarthick.com says you will need an array of skills:

1. You need to have a complete understanding about the platform(s), i.e. FaceBook, LinkedIn.


2. A passion towards public relationships, since Social Media is all about relationships with customers and potential customers.


3. The ability to use tools like Tweetdeck and Commun.it to analyze the relationships your company has with customers.


4. Ability to mine data and analyze it, this is Statistics.


5. Good marketing skills: Build and Online Brand and be able to promote it.


6. A keen eye for content: Content is Everything Now.


7. Knowledge of Web design: You’ll need to use and be able to teach people how to use the tools for design.


8. Keep up with the current trends: Possibly the most important since the Social Media world changes all the time.

Throw Out the Old Job Titles

John Wilpers is CEO of Degrees 2 Dreams, a company that leverages social media strategies for recent college graduates recommends this 5- step process for finding a job in Social Media:

1. A resume with QR Codes: one taking hiring mangers to a video of you and another link to a video with references.


2. A “Me” Site that serves as a digital portfolio.


3. A Professional Blog that showcases your skills and builds a professional network.


4. A Social Media Marketing Campaign that promotes You.


5. A campaign to interview industry professionals to find out what you have to do to get a job.

According to Thomas Friedman, writing in the New York Times: “They (employers) are all looking for the same kind of people — people who not only have the critical thinking skills to do the value-adding jobs that technology can’t, but also people who can invent, adapt and reinvent their jobs every day, in a market that changes faster than ever.


Phillip Gwinn

Jeep Owners are Coffee Lovers

Jeep Owners Love Coffee

Jeep Owners love Coffee? Yes, according to Eric Bosco at bostinno.com. Quoting a report originally published on 1-to-1 Media stating that Jeep®, used data and technology to find an attribute of many of its owners: they’re also coffee lovers.

 

Modern Technology Being Used To Examine Customer Attributes

The growing quantity of digital content found in blogs, websites, email, social media, and company records allow companies to examine millions of attribute combinations. Marketers are using modern technology, including no-SQL databases and computers using graphical processing units (GPUs)s to process consumer information.

Data-basing with NoSQL and Computing with GPUs

Marketers are using NoSQL databases to manage large data volumes beyond the capability of Oracle or MySQL and to manage large amounts of unstructured data. They are also using GPUs (Graphical Processing Units) which use parallel structure that makes them more effective than general-purpose CPUs. GPUs are usually associated with computer gaming, and provide processing 8 times faster than computers using just CPUs for processing.

Behavioral Modeling of Consumers

Some technology providers are helping marketers to model user behavior. A particular consumer could be profiled as a soccer fan who shops on Amazon.com regularly. As the consumer marketplace evolves, we will see that those marketers who invest in science and technology now, will become the most effective and targeted marketers.

Soon there may be a "standard model" of consumers and everyone will be tagged as a certain type of customer and treated likewise. Customers who make regular purchases may get better prices and beter customer service than infrequent customers. People who rarely purchase will be ignored.

Phillip Gwinn

Sell That Stuff! Or, How to Sell Anything

No matter what kind of marketing you do, sooner or later you need to make a sale and Sell That Stuff! Everything in this world is sold at one time or another. Your home, clothes, the keyboard you type on, and the chair you sit upon have been sold, probably more than once. They were sold from the manufacturer to a distributor, who sold to a retailer, then to you. For every sale there is a person asking another person: "Do you want to buy this?". Sometimes this function is on a computer screen, when Amazon.com asks you to review your order then Place the Order

Good Salespeople Aren't Born.
So, what do you do when you have to close the sale? When you have to get the prospective client to say "Yes"? Good salespeople aren't born, good salespeople just follow a process. I found the process in a small paperback called There is a Better Way to Sell, by Sidney Edlund. [1. http://www.amazon.com/There-Better-Sell-Sidney-Edlund/dp/0814475329 ]. This out-of-print book detailed the process for selling just about anything.

 My Well Worn copy of Sidney Edlund's Book

Sidney Edlund's Process
Sidney Edlund's selling process is simple, and has an acronym: OPIBROC
Objective- Know your Objective
Preparation- Know your Product
Inquiry- Find Out What the Prospect Needs
Benefits- Show the Benefits of What You Offer
(W)rap the benefit- Get the Prospect to Agree about the Benefits
Objections- Overcome 
Closing- "So, Do You Want to Go ahead with this?"

Sticking to this process helps the sales process by reminding the salesperson where they are in the process and what to do next.....
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Thanks,
Phillip Gwinn