I am NOT a social media expert!

Every day in one of the blogs I read or somewhere on Twitter is a new article complaining about all the “social media experts” out there. There are evaluation tools, ways to discredit people, and scores of others telling you to talk to them.  Fine. That’s not the point. I have never claimed to be a social media expert – that would be crazy. There are too many tools, options, approaches and ideas to try to master.  What I can do is talk about how social media works with a marketing campaign to target specific audiences.  And that’s the key – when you develop your marketing plan (and yes, you should have a well-thought-out plan), you should include specific areas of social media. NOT all of them!

The way I identify what makes sense for you is to first discuss who are your target customers or “buyer personas” as David Meerman Scott calls them. Who are we trying to find that is the right person for YOU to contact?  Why exactly are they the right person?  And these descriptions aren’t for general consumption. I would never post them on a blog because some of the ways we describe people may not sound flattering.  If you are bad with people who are sheep, we aren’t going to look for followers.  We’ll look for leaders. But we certainly aren’t going to build a marketing message saying “no sheep need apply” because people don’t think of themselves that way.

Next, we’ll find out where those people are. I mean, there is no point it trying to reach neurosurgeons through an on-line game. Just like you wouldn’t use a healthcare magazine to find a programmer to work on a manufacturing app. That sounds pretty obvious, but when it comes to social media, it seems like EVERYONE is EVERYWHERE. The reality is they just aren’t.  And there are ways to identify the right venue.

Finally, we’re going to determine the right vehicle.  Again, you wouldn’t advertise on a billboard to attract subway riders so use the same logic for how to communicate. Many of my clients need information that is more thorough than a blog entry or post somewhere and they like to print things so I write a newsletter. I am sure there are some clients that keep each copy and print it when they need to read an article again. There are others that read it on the screen and others that don’t read it at all (some on purpose, some who intend to get to it and don’t).  That’s fine – I have other ways of getting to them as well. Most of the time it is by PHONE.  My favorite social media tool, by the way.

So I am not claiming to be an expert so please don’t lump me in that category.  I am just a person trying to help you market your business as effectively as possible.