Digital Marketing is the promoting of brands using all forms of digital advertising channels to reach consumers. Having worked in digital marketing for 15 years, it’s interesting to watch marketers chase the shiny new thing. Marketers are scrambling to use Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social channels to promote brands with social and to monitize it as well.
I was honored to speak in Scottsdale, AZ last week at SMX Social Marketing conference. I learned a great deal AND met some fantastic social marketers.
Here are some qualities they ALL have in common:
TOP SOCIAL MARKETERS CREATE FANTASTIC, INTERESTING CONTENT
90%+ of Twitter messaging is from 5% of account holders
and frankly a lot of that is garbage, self-serving links, talk-about-me-all-day accounts. Great content on Facebook, Twitter and other social channels is hard to define, but you know it when you see it. Allison Dempsey of Parenting Magazine helps develop exceptional content to share with moms that is fun, informative, engaging and sharable. Get opinions on your content, ask the question “Would anyone share this?” If the answer is no, don’t publish it. This was one of Parenting.com’s most shared postcard-series:
Boob, It's what's for dinner
TOP SOCIAL MARKETERS KNOW THAT ENGAGEMENT IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN VOLUME
Jordan Koene of eBay shared how they are developing content strategies for engagement with smaller niche groups rather than overarching messaging to share with the masses. Sheer volume isn’t the goal, even for eBay, it’s finding and engaging with niche markets.
Engagement vs Fan Base
TOP SOCIAL MARKETERS KNOW THAT NOT EVERYTHING THAT CAN BE COUNTED MATTERS AND NOT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS CAN BE COUNTED
Social marketing analytics was one of the more challenging topics, primarily because we’re still trying to figure it out. Since many social marketers are also search marketers, we love the one to one attribution we can often deliver in Paid and Natural Search (and frankly so do our customers;) but it’s not always that easy. Top social marketers are learning to attribute brand awareness, brand engagement and even brand evangelism to social. They are accepting that social is part of the discovery portion of the funnel.
SEOmoz Conversion Funnel
TOP SOCIAL MARKETERS ARE GENUINE
Tim Moore, Ty Downing, Merry Morud and Courtney Seiter work with some great brands including Sears, Martha Stewart, Kohler and Nissan.
As we discussed working with clients, they agreed that the value of a brand desiring to be genuine with their consumers was a top quality in a successful campaign. JCPenney and WalMart have both gotten backlash from a less-than-genuine approach to social marketing (fake and paid reviews and links).
Consumers communicate with each other about their brand experience and there’s simply nowhere to hide. Good social brands aren’t perfect, but they are genuine and own up to mistakes. Kevin Scholl of Red Roof Inns talked about their ability to empower customer service to resolve consumer issues as an effort to be genuine and please their customers.
TOP SOCIAL MARKETERS GET THAT CONSUMERS ARE FACING SOCIAL FATIGUE
As marketers, the beauty of being able to target consumers by literal, behavioral and inferred targeting is enormously powerful. Top social marketers recognize though that they can’t just beat people to death with their messaging. They understand the value of delivering the right message at the time a consumer wants it. This is far more engaging than the philosophy of drowning tons of people in your message in the hopes a small portion will convert. People will only engage in social for as long as it serves a purpose for them. Standing on the corner with your megaphone will only prompt people to move to another corner. There’s a great deal of discussion about where social networks will net in the next few years based on the fact that people are getting fatigued with social. If history is any indicator, people will gravitate to the platform that gives them what they want and protects them from what they don’t want (think Google AdWords, people see ads when they’re searching on keywords related to that ad, not just randomly). Top social marketers are aware of social fatigue and strive to deliver quality, relevant messaging.
TOP SOCIAL MARKETERS LISTEN AT LEAST AS MUCH AS THEY SHARE
95% of consumer feedback is ignored on Facebook
Big brands are creating positions titled “Chief Listening Officer”. Good marketers understand that listening is more important than sharing (as one speaker said, that’s why we have 2 ears and 1 mouth). Do a lot of listening before you start talking.
Morsel of the Story – Follow the lead of these great social marketers and remember that Social Marketing is just one more channel. Your communication strategies, not which channels you use, will define marketing success.
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