There is much misunderstanding between the concept and the tools—and the benefits of either. There is confusion as to why social media tools can’t be used just like e-mail, bulk mail and advertising. There are also power struggles internally for who should own social media and who has control over what is for public consumption.
I have started reading Paul Chaney’s latest book, “The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media.” (Paul’s first book is “Realty Blogging: Build Your Brand and Out-Smart Your Competition.”) In which he talks about marketer’s role.
The author talks about very crucial five trends turning the business world upside down:
• Consumer Skepticism
• Fragmented Media
• Loss of Control
• Niche Marketing
• Customers are in Control
Paul provides seven proven strategies to help you become successful with your social media strategy. If you think I will share my press release or customer testimonial or success story on Twitter and Facebook and call it a day? Then you are not in M 2.0, here is some food for your thought:
• Business Blogging
• Social Networks
• Niche Online Communities
• Microblogging
• Video
• Podcasting
• PR 2.0
• RSS, Tagging, Bookmarking and more!
He also clarifies: All of these strategies mean nothing without a plan of action that includes listening, engaging and measuring (In the same order). Paul positions listening as the new marketing, its very crucial to understand why listening before engaging will determine whether your social media plan will be successful or not.
Now think every time you meet your customers offline what is the first thing you do? You shake their hand. Now you can do that digitally. We call it engaging. Paul offers tips for how to best engage in online conversation and his “table” metaphor is spot on and so are the tactics he shares for getting a seat at someone else’s table or setting a table of your own.
Finally, here’s where you get to show your management team just how smart you are. All of those digital handshakes are measurable. Paul shares a whole bunch of tools to help you along the way. Some are free and some are paid, but either way you’ll have more than enough to select from.
This is a must read for new age Marketer!!!!!
