How to Implement a Corporate Social Media Strategy
Social media, as an emerging technology, so far has been insular to a specific group of practitioners. Its leaders generally have backgrounds building or working within internet companies and may not have the breadth or depth of business acumen or experience to apply social media within the context of specific industries. Tamar Weinberg asked well known social media strategists about what traits define a social media marketer and compiled an extensive list of responses.
I interpreted their viewpoints vis-a-vis how a company can implement a social media marketing strategy, and categorized four distinct ways for such company to find qualified resources (with excerpts from Tamar's article):
1. Do It Yourself
Social media marketing can be managed in-house. The specialist should already be entrenched in the industry in order to develop practical strategies. Challenge is finding the manager to develop the program. Example: Rudy Bachraty at Trulia.
- Maki, Internet Marketing and Social Media Blogger - Develop Tactical Knowledge on Social Media to be effective.
- Valeria Maltoni, Online Marketer. I do not think it appropriate to use the term “social media marketer.”
People do not want to hear from companies as represented by marketers,
they want to hear from other people.
2. Hire social media marketer who knows the "tricks of the NEW trade".
Social media is the new SEO. Challenge: Practitioner must prove their experience and work, not many can do this yet.
3. Hire social media strategist who understands their space
Social media is the new SEO. Challenge: Practitioner must prove their experience and work, not many can do this yet.
- Rebecca Kelley, Search Marketing and Social Media Consultant - A knowledgeable social media marketer has experienced repeated success on various social media websites and knows what sort of content succeeds and fails, and effective ways to write, submit, and promote various pieces.
- Chris Garrett, Co-Author of Pro Blogger - It’s a lot like SEO, people focus on algorithms, tricks and tactics but it is really all about people.
Social media consultants can work independently or with
a strategy/marketing firm without specific industry experience, but
they still need to be entrenched in that industry's conversation to be
credible. Challenge: Difficult to find consultants that have inserted themselves, let alone prominent, within the industry conversation.
- Reem Abeidoh, Social Media Strategist - A social media marketer needs to be a contributor and participant online to better understand the space and provide solid recommendations to their clients.
- Michael Gray, Internet Marketer - You have to be a member of the community first. if you see the
community as a virtual ATM where you can come and get links without
ever contributing, eventually your account will run dry.
4. Hire traditional tech consultant that specializes in social media and consult across industries
Social media strategists work at traditional technology consulting firm like Forrester or Jupiter. Challenge is finding high-caliber management consultants and marketing professionals who can be rainmakers at the higher budgets they command.
SocialMediaJobs.com provides an overview of some of the companies pursuing social media strategies. The opportunities reflect how marketing careers are changing.
Social media strategists work at traditional technology consulting firm like Forrester or Jupiter. Challenge is finding high-caliber management consultants and marketing professionals who can be rainmakers at the higher budgets they command.
- Brian Solis, Principal of New Media Agency - Just because we’re on Twitter and Seesmic, blogging, or uploading Flip videos to YouTube doesn’t qualify us social media experts.
- Adam Metz, Social Media Strategist - 1. Experience working with diverse groups of brands, generally (business-to-business, business-to-consumer), 2. Experience executing in at least 10 tools (podcast, video, wiki, blog, social network, etc.)
SocialMediaJobs.com provides an overview of some of the companies pursuing social media strategies. The opportunities reflect how marketing careers are changing.
Hi Pat!
Thanks for the mention.
Being a part of the online real estate community for he last couple of years has given me the opportunity to create some amazing relationships. It's this bond with the community that is really important for a social media marketer. Understanding the needs of the community and it's culture is crucial when building relationships.
As I mentioned on Tamara's blog:
My top 7 Social Media Marketer traits are:
1. Live and breath your niche - Understand the culture and your audience - be a part of the community
2. Know your product or service inside and out
3. Everyone’s Voice Matters - Respect others opinions
4. Be genuine in all your communications
5. Try new things - Communities and tools - stick with what works
6. Be mobile. Be real time. Be responsive.
7. Give more than you receive
Rudy
Social Media Guru at Trulia
http://www.retaggr.com/Card/trulia
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Rudy, you're the rare visionary social media strategist that can apply its workable elements to real estate. And Happy Belated Birthday!
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Hi Pat,
I've been reading your blog for over a year now via my feedreader. In my opinion, no one does a better job at thinking outside the real estate box than you do, and your efforts to help the real estate industry re-invent itself are laudable.
Over the past few months, I sense that you've begun to take an evolutionary step forward in both your thinking and understanding of what the industry must do in order not only to survive and prosper, but to adapt to consumer's rapidly changing online behavior. And you are absolutely on the right track in focusing on social media as being the key to unlocking our collective futures. Keep up the good work.
I honestly believe that real estate professionals are perfectly positioned, more than most other career professionals, to take full advantage of all that social media has to offe--and, in doing so, advance there careers--only they just can't see it yet. But the fact is they've been using social media skills, knowledge sharing about their local markets and communities, and relationship building techniques their entire careers. They just need to figure out how to apply these same skills in the online world. Real estate is a social business. Utilizing social media tools will help us online what we do quite naturally offline.
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Thank you for your compliments Tim... I'm pleased to be introduced to your Boston blog network REHubbub and your writing. We share the same perspectives.
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Pat,
This is a terrific post. You've put together and identified the strategies very well.
My 2 cents:
For me the most important factors involve being genuine, and putting the interests of your constituents first. I find that consistently looking for ways to better serve the members of a community provides a clear roadmap that helps in reaching business goals.
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Thx Caleb, many of the social media marketers in Tamar's article mentioned genuine customer service as the key goal to the "new" marketing paradigm.
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