Social media marketing needs experienced hands

Dear Mr. CEO, will you ever let an intern write a press release?

Didn?t you always think that social media is ?only fun? and is used mostly by younger people? And that your customers and audiences who mattered don?t use social media?

So, enter the social media expert – just because he is young, recently finished college and spends a lot of time on Facebook, companies happily pass on probably the most important and sensitive job to this individual. Most important and sensitive? Simply because, social media can add the seasoning to your brand?s perception, reputation and imagery, those being the very things all your brand campaigns converge to cement in the marketplace.

I have nothing against young social media experts but the fact is social media is just another facet of marketing and customer service which needs an experienced marketing professional.

You would spend hours with your PR agency about what to say and what not before issuing a press release. Before an event, you would spend hours deliberating roles and modalities with your Events agency. But, when it came to social media, what makes you turn the other way? Is that because the subject appears a little cryptic, a little nebulous to grasp or do you find it petty, perhaps uninteresting or non-rewarding for the short term or you just didn?t know about it?

If an intern could be entrusted to learn and manage this function, it should be a jiffy for a seasoned marketing practitioner who understands his business for having built it along the way. However, to do so, what it needs before anything else is an investment. Of your time.

While you?ve been using the same marketing and communication techniques that you have used time and again in your daily business, social media presents yet another marketing channel. Why should its newness and delivery of disproportionate value, hinder you from considering it, especially when it can be leveraged to your brand?s advantage?

We are now moving from one media that we understood for many years to three types of connected media. Most of us are used to the first media i.e. bought media or buying media on print, television, radio and online. The second media is ?owned media? or the media channels we own, our websites, our digital channels. Most businesses have websites. Do we ever put a value on what this channel is worth and what is it delivering? Are we channelising our customers, partners, potential employees, vendors to get to our website or have we created an island with no connectivity? Let?s leave that conversation for another day. The last part of media is ?earned media? or media which is derived from social media.

Social media is neither a fad nor is it a shiny object. It is here to stay and embrace each of us, our families and our customers. It partners the entire eco-system and the brands we work with and use. There is no way to not be a part of it. Even if you say you don?t want to engage in social media, someone somewhere is talking about you, your brand. You can ignore it but you can?t escape it.

Social media is not about building a Facebook page and getting fans, ?likes? and followers. It is about marketing and engaging customer service driving revenues. It is just like any of your general business conversations with your customers in real time. It brings in a new dimension of transparency and most brands that have been honest have had loyal customers appreciate this effort and that has led to bringing in newer customers. This can actually do wonders for a brand.

In today?s connected environment the next brand is just a click away. The age old writing that said ?If you like our service, tell others. If you don?t, please tell us? doesn?t stay the same.

Coming back to experts in social media – the interns! Before we proceed, let me clarify that interns is a metaphor for under-experienced social media managers.

What interns can do is possibly build a great fan page, but does that translate to real sales or sustained engagement? Ask that question and what you would get is a promise of more postings.

The biggest challenge here is that they are not trained communications experts, they can?t write and I don?t mean English. If you have five seconds to get your message across to a new customer, you can now imagine what you would get.

It is not about more fans on Facebook, more Tweets or +1?s. It is about good, compelling, brand-relevant communication. It is about good writing. It is about understanding your customer and making sure that he thinks of you first.

Here is a fast track six-hour crash course on understanding social media.

Call in the social media agencies and experts to give you a run down on what they think your company should do in social media. I promise you will get enough and more, in all colours shapes and sizes.

Once you have got the broad sense of the possibilities, you will start to understand the nuts and bolts and the infinite possibilities of social media and what all it can do for your brand.

To sign off, I would conclude by saying that social media is ?not? cool. Building loyal and engaged customers is cool. And making money is evencooler.

If you would not get your intern to write a press release, why would you want him to manage your social media presence?