The Learning Center

Marc Landsberg, the founder and CEO of the Chicago-based social media and content strategy company Socialdeviant, thinks social media marketing won’t be around in 2020—at least, not in the way we see it now. Landsberg predicts on Social Media Week that social media marketing will become synonymous with content marketing, and using traditional marketing techniques within a social media format will no longer work. Your marketing campaigns will need to open up new channels of communication and instruction that position your brand as the thought-leader in your field.

Create an Open-Education Format

Social networks are didactic by their very definition, and marketing within these networks needs to facilitate learning. People go online for information, and the new social media marketing campaign will help educate people about your field. There’s little difference now between traditional, formal instruction and nontraditional expert material, thanks to the blurring of the line between informal education and formal instruction. For example, check out the Intuit payroll service page. The accounting giant uses this space to educate users about a variety of issues of interest to small business owners, from payroll education to human resources and employee management.

On your social media or blog page, create forums where a prospective customer can interact, learn and discuss industry-specific information. Use this as the cornerstone of your social media operation.

Go for the Niche

Niche marketing has been around almost as long as modern marketing concepts. Social media lends itself specifically to the development of niche markets because of its scalability. There is no cost difference in creating one Facebook page or 10, yet the return on brand recognition and data management can be huge. According to the open-access biology journal PLOS Biology, even scientists are getting in the game by using blogs and social networks to promote their research, share ideas and find funding.

Use Social Media to Listen

Using social media metrics gives marketers and small business owners more information than simple advertising metrics do. They give you actual feedback on your marketing message. By setting up a social network page and monitoring the responses in a systematical manner, you are able to know what your customers are thinking and saying. After listening to the reaction from your followers and fans, your company can tweak its message and deliverables in real time. This way, you do not need to create a whole new campaign to correct your marketing message.

Make a Campaign That Makes a Campaign

The new social media marketing strategy is self-perpetuating. The 2010 political uprising in the Middle East gave some very interesting insights into the role of social media in community development. Much of the activism in Egypt and Tunisian started with bloggers and tweeters, and these media messages gave life to a larger community of social involvement. The best marketing campaign is one in which the campaign sparks a live community of support. Use your social media to seed other online communities, so that they will continue your message without your backing.

If your small business needs assistance with social media marketing, let the team at Titan Web Marketing Solutions solve all of your problems. From initial set-up to management, we strive to boost your company’s social media presence. Call our office today at 877-935-3796 to get started.