Social Media Manager: New Career for a New Industry

Whether the engineers behind the first online social networks ever imagined they’d be creating an industry or replacing one, social media has impacted how business owners communicate with the public so profoundly that the social media manager has become one of the most sought after roles in internet marketing.

Earned media is a relatively new term with an extensive history. The intention of every business is to grow and growing through word of mouth required a great deal of money in the age of paid advertising. The problem business owners face today is exactly the same problem social media answers; how to grow.

Once Upon A Time

From the perspective of the TV audience the explosion of cable and satellite service made staying home far more entertaining. Dozens of channels makes it easy to find something of interest to almost anyone at any time day or night and recording devices eliminate or allow viewers to skip commercials.

Although the price of commercial airtime has drastically reduced, one very interesting commercial that never aired before is worth noting. Stations now advertise the potential advantages of advertising with them. Why is that?

In truth the likelihood of catching your target audience at exactly the right time of day in the hopes that they won’t change the channel when your commercial is on are slim. The more obvious problem is that no one is waiting for a commercial on radio or TV before they decide to make a purchase.

Why People Buy

Why people buy is far more important than when they buy. We all have a deep emotional connection to why we buy anything from food to houses. We decide to finally make the purchase when we find what we’re looking for.

Failing to make the emotional connection first is why interruption marketing costs far more than it’s worth. Business owners are leaving this model in droves because regardless of how many millions of viewers they can dazzle with a commercial they have no way of first establishing an emotional connection.

Everyone loves watching the Superbowl commercials. They vote on favorites and have contests. What amazes me the most is when those really ambiguous spots run for millions of dollars and everyone in the room says, “What was that for?”

Social Media Is Emotional

Right out of the gate people are engaged emotionally because that’s what social sites are all about. Earned media is the initial step when launching a marketing campaign on a social network.

This isn’t a three pronged approach or a complicated scheme. You don’t have to select your audience or sell them anything. Simply enter the virtual world of people who share an emotional connection to your products and services.

The atmosphere breeds the sharing of experience and provided you continually offer a valuable or rewarding experience, more people will hear about you. From the small business on the corner of Main Street, to the global reseller who works from home the benefits of a well managed social media marketing campaign are worth far more than it ever costs.

Timeless and Continuous

Speaking strictly in terms of how Facebook works the links that lead potential customers directly to your website are never hard to find. Posts that are shared can start going viral immediately because every single friend in that person’s network has the ability to post to their respective network.

The like button affects far more than the compulsion for others to read what their friend likes, it begs an emotional response, “Click like to agree with me!”

At one time called ‘Business Pages’ then ‘Fan Pages’ now ‘Like Pages’ Facebook now brings it all back into the same context. You like many of the things, including a business page, that your friends like, and they like what you like. And those pages you like are remembered conveniently in the left hand column (for now).

Professional and Social

How about the businesses that are looking for professionals to network with both online and in person? Social media managers help arrange the details of corporate events while giving them the friendly flavor that makes work more enjoyable.

Expanding your client list through exclusive social media networks is far more practical than the old school method of mailing out invitations. While email invitations may be a practical step to reminding people of upcoming events the real kicker is:
1.    An online video presentation of the event
2.    A detailed layout of the location
3.    Links to the hotel or conference center
4.    Online registration and booking
5.    Details of the events agenda

Images of a golf course, spa or restaurant go a lot further toward engendering an emotional reaction to a business event than text copy on a folded piece of paper.

Integration of Social Media

For those of us who always looked at social media marketing as one of the important aspects of an overall marketing strategy, the social media specialists have become far more valuable of late. At one time the challenge was simply to fuse business websites and blogs with social sites.

Now the challenge involves mobile communications and e-commerce within the same social setting. If you have a customer who’s ready to make a purchase you don’t want to send them to another store, you want to close the deal.

The bigger sites also want the same thing which is why they want users to have the ability to find whatever they need, schmooze, make a purchase, learn something new, or watch a funny video while riding the train home from work at night; all on a single app.

Tying It All Together

In an effort to make it all manageable for the common mortal companies are now developing sites that attempt to roll it all into one place meaning you can post to multiple sites from one location. If the intent is just to make an announcement that would be fine but imagine having to carry on the same conversation in 20 different locations with hundreds of different responses. Suddenly it doesn’t sound so easy.

Not to knock these companies because they do answer many important needs except for needing someone to manage it all. The obvious advantage of being able to post content in one location and have it hit multiple sites means that you only have to post it once, but what happens to all the responses that go unanswered? Not only is that not a good thing from a business perspective, it isn’t very social.

I’ve been asked whether a company should have their own SEO specialist and the short answer is yes. SEO and social media aren’t necessarily exclusive but they’re both critical in the online business world. I wouldn’t hire an SEO specialist that isn’t aware of the valuable part social media plays anymore than I’d hire a social media manager that doesn’t understand SEO.

The Big Picture

Marketing includes every aspect and every department associated with business and I’ve said before that you construct a business model with your marketing plan. If the marketing plan includes commercial advertising that no longer provides an adequate ROI the business model falls apart.

Like a building that has been damaged it is necessary to remove part of that structure in order to save the building. If you’re tracking the ROI of your print ads, radio and TV spots and they’re still effective, great. If you can’t track them it might be necessary to weigh their importance based on growth over the last 5 years.

Any paid advertising campaign whether it’s social media or billboards along the highway should be measured against growth. Businesses don’t advertise to sustain the same results or keep the same client base.

Why It Works

We’ve established that social media allows businesses to integrate themselves into the framework of specified society. You don’t have to invest in reaching people that are not interested in what you offer.

You have an opportunity to introduce yourself, your brand, your product, your service and your vision where you can expect a warm welcome. If done correctly you become popular and everybody likes you.

Outsourcing or hiring an employee to handle this aspect of your business isn’t going to be a choice for long and for some businesses it isn’t a choice any longer. Many companies are handing this responsibility over to current members of their marketing department. While most of the work done by your social media manager will involve consistently engaging your ‘friends’ they’ll still face the challenge of keeping up with the changes and developments affecting how the process works.

Join the discussion and share with your friends… Social media users and business owners both benefit from knowing the potential of what can be done.