In my daily work, I come across marketing organizations of all shapes and sizes. In this digital age and moving forward into what I call “The Age of Increasing Technology Individualism,” every company, no matter the size, requires a solid social media team and working process. There are multiple components of this team, and, most importantly, detailed metrics to measure its success. If your marketing organization has not yet invested in full social media strategies or your firm is building out its social media marketing programs, you need to have best practices deployed. Let me share here some initial social media strategy recommendations that will get you and your social team or person on your way.
Social Media Team Strategy #1: Do Not Look at Social Media as a Junior Position
Too many times, now and in the past, I have walked into mid-market and enterprise corporations where a junior person is being held responsible for an experienced marketer’s work. To ensure success in social media marketing, a professional with solid social marketing management experience should lead a team. If you do not have that person, that person can be hired or a social media trainer like myself or someone else can be brought in to train staff for the appropriate marketing skills based on recognized social media strategies. The way you can test this is to review who you have on your staff and what marketing experience they have and what what PR experience they bring to the table. A junior person can be a great supporter or coordinator if trained and managed well but should not be the main person responsible for managing your entire social media program. Social media marketing, when optimized, requires skills in analytics, writing, art direction or graphic design, marketing communication, advertising management, and adoptive use and understanding of technology. Implementing social media strategies is a serious job requiring serious and professional attention.
Social Media Team Strategy #2: Include your Sales Leader in Social Marketing
Social Media Marketing has a heavy social sales component. Social Media Marketing is about community and relationship building. Social Selling, Social Marketing, and Social Branding all support each other and follow the agreed to social media strategies. You should include your sales leader inside of your organization in weekly meetings and get an idea of how they are or are not creating and engaging in prospect social selling relationships. In the social sales continuum, marketing plays a key role in driving leads into the social ecosystem funnel. The sales leader can provide insight into what is happening in his or her team’s social selling program which will affect social media strategies and social marketing programs.
The reverse holds true as well. Content Marketing is a perfect example. Your sales team can be your best arsenal to properly distribute your corporate message and drive ongoing impressions in influential, vertical social communities.
Social Media Team Strategy #3: Your CMO or Even CEO Can Be Your Strongest Social Brand
Prospects, investors, and partners are looking in social or having their junior people research online your executives to make key buy decisions about your business. By having a C-level person from your organization with a solid online reputation actively engaged in online conversations with your communities and the online media, you have a major leg up against your competition. Social branding of the executive means creating an online brand that delivers education and value to the constituents of your organization. The executive online brand needs to have its own individual online market position and needs to deliver communications in a truly authentic manner. By leading social marketing from the top, your prospects that are highly active in social will respect your other online marketing programs. This is where true credibility can be driven in a digital age.
These are just three high-level social media strategies for social media team building. Feel free to connect with me in social and ask questions. I will continue to share stories of effective social marketing and related tactics, strategies, and new technologies in my next MENG Blog post. Finally, I hope you will join me as I lead “Social Branding for Marketing Executives,” a MENG Webinar on December 10 2015.
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