Here are two questions I get a lot:

1. Is it possible to align Social Media with a company’s current marketing and/or PR strategy?
2. How does that work?

Answer:

Yes, it is. Will it be easy? I don’t think so, I see many companies struggling within a couple of areas:

• Social Media is a democracy, not conventional shove it down your throat marketing. Companies can kill their program before it ever gets off the ground if they don’t change it to “joining the conversation” or “enter the story” type strategy.
• Next, often those who have been in marketing for a long time don’t deal with the change well, that advertising has moved to Social Media. Watch out for resistance and truly evaluate concerns as whether well thought out or just excuses not to do something.
• Lastly, companies are struggling because they are putting their programs in the hands of people who are not truly versed and successful with Social Media. While putting a highly educated marketing professional in place can seem like the right decision, it may not be “if” that person has not themselves or been educated by those who have been successful in Social Media Space.

“It is critical that your company implements strategies that have been proven to be successful rather than operate off of theory.”

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How Your Company Can Begin to Profit Using Social Media

When it comes to managing your companies online message and social media branding who should it be? I will share with you some of the pro’s and con’s of each category below. In the end I believe you should review this with the assumption you need a little of each profession and you may need to be more of a mediator when putting these together in a room. So the real challenge for you is to get them all to come together (play nice) and come up with something extremely powerful for your companies Social Media strategy.

***Grab This Complimentary eBook to specifically see how to begin***
to engage, capture, and create buzz around your company
Grab our complimentary eBook:
How Your Company Can Begin to Profit Using Social Media

So lets review:

Internally:
When you consider what your companies already doing to manage its sales message and who is currently handling that it is easy to assume that this person should head up your Social Media Strategy. With Social Media for business being so new, you will want to be sure that person who heads this up is “open” to this new movement as by now you understand it is definitely not going away.

You may possibly hurt your position and strategy by keeping it with your current marketing manager as this new advertising method can be very hard to grasp. In addition the knowledge and understanding it takes to capitalize in this space has up till now come from hands of trial and error.

Social Media Firm:
In the selection process of finding a Social Media firm to handle your Social Media Strategy be sure to secure a firm who has proven successful people on the team. While case studies may be few as this market develops, they should be able to showcase personal success.

In addition, new firms are popping up everywhere. Be sure to dig into these firms experience and understanding of B2B or B2C marketing and how that plays into Social Media Strategies.

Ad Agency (not the same as a Social Media Firm):
One thing many companies are gravitating to doing is to relying on their current Ad and PR Agencies to point them in the right direction with Social Media. This could be one of the worst assumptions to be making as many PR & AD Agencies are not well versed in Social Media and tend to operate off of theory rather than proven successful strategies.

Be sure your current agencies have taken pro-active steps to stay current on the Social Media movement within hiring proven successful social media professionals.

Internet Marketer:
In your search for a strong Social Media Strategy it is very easy to come across successful Internet Marketers. While this is an additional arm that needs strong consideration to your companies strategy. You do not want to throw out your standard processes you have in place in generating leads, engaging customers with key questions, etc… These elements need to be melted together when you do consult with an internet marketer.

I think there is a place for all of the above, I will say again the key is to getting them all to play nice together to bring your company to the front of the Social Media movement.

***Grab This Complimentary eBook to specifically see how to begin***
to engage, capture, and create buzz around your company
Grab our complimentary eBook:
How Your Company Can Begin to Profit Using Social Media

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