One of the first things my Social Media MBA students come to realize within the first 2 weeks of class is that the world of social moves at a rapid pace, changes often, and is constantly being evaluated and re-evaluated. You, the social media professional, carry the responsibility of ensuring you stay current with technology, methods, and strategy. With this responsibility also comes the need to represent yourself in a realistic light. Resist the urge to describe yourself as a social media Jedi, social media rock star, social media guru or the like. However, ‘social media professional’ is quite descriptive …
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When my Social Media MBA students take their first course in the Social Media Marketing sequence, I stress the importance of listening via social, before attempting to jump right in. One of the course requirements is to create and maintain a blog surrounding social media marketing topics as well as become active on Twitter. Engaging on Twitter is usually the hardest skill to master for some. Once accounts are set up and tweaked, many are ready to sit and twiddle their thumbs. Twitter (and other platforms as well) is only as valuable as the user makes them. My first suggestion …
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At the beginning of the year, I outlined 15 social media concepts to help make you a more marketable social media professional in 2013. This month we will focus on Concept 2, the logic behind utilizing social media for business marketing. Review of Concept 1 can be found here. Concept 2: Do you know the logic behind utilizing social? Here’s a hint: Engagement. This is a broad answer, but if you have been following this blog, you should know that the common theme is “engagement” with external and internal stakeholders. The traditional MBA offers students courses in all aspect of …
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Last month, I shared with you 15 social media concepts to help make you a more marketable social media professional in 2013. These concepts are covered in detail throughout the three different social media graduate courses I teach. This next series of The Social Media MBA will introduce each of these concepts. At the beginning of each term, I ask my students in my first of three levels of social media marketing courses to utilize our class wiki to list their name, blog, and Twitter handle. In the last 1.5 years (and 10 courses later), there are fewer and fewer …
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Approximately 73% of Fortune 500 companies have a Twitter account; 66% have Facebook Pages. However, many of these organizations lack experienced personnel to truly unleash the power of social. According to a survey by Harvard Business Review of 2,100 companies, only 12% of those utilizing media feel they use it effectively. Further, online job postings requiring social media skills have gone up 87% from 2011-2012; there is now demand for proven social media professionals. This is great news for all of my Social Media grad students! This leads me to believe that not only employers accepting social, it is now …
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As we round the bend to the end of another term of learning and applying the principles of social media marketing, I wonder what 2013 will bring to the social media world. I have spoken to my classes about the history of Marketing, the emergence of social media, and how we utilize social platforms and tools for B2C and B2B. But, now we need to consider what new tools, processes, trends, and gaps could appear as social media becomes more pervasive, effective, and required in business. In the future, I think we will see a further evolution of how we …
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This month, my Social Media MBA students are working on a project that involves a website, blog, and multiple peripheral social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. The objective of this project is to give them a virtual sandbox of sorts to put into action what they have learned in my previous two social media courses. The project involves creating a social media strategy from the ground up. Quite a challenge with the limited amount of time in a semester. However, they are moving right along and will pass the torch so to speak when their course ends in …
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Approximately half a century ago the American Marketing Association coined the term the “Four ‘P’s” as a way to describe the essential elements of the marketing mix: product, price, place and promotion. By the 1980s, “Relationship Marketing” was used to describe a new focus on understanding customer segments, delivering ongoing quality service, and achieving high customer satisfaction. The 80’s saw the emergence of database marketing, however, chaotic databases did not provide much insight for businesses at the time. In the 90’s, companies began to improve on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) by making it more of a two-way street. Instead of …
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Each term I teach my introductory course in social media marketing, students always bring up the topic of social media use for customer service functions and the risks associated with incorrect implementation. Technology has brought upon many changes to the branding and marketing industries, specifically social media. Tools such as social media platforms, forums, video sharing, and mobile allow interaction between the brand and the consumer, and interactions between consumers themselves. This interaction is significant in that they can allow for real time dialog and can facilitate the exchange of experiences and preferences between consumers and to the brand as …
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Social media for sales and operations cannot begin to be explained in one blog post. Nor is it covered in one week of my intro to Social Media Marketing course. The tools, concepts, and principles we discuss are revisited in the subsequent social media courses and much of the rationale stems from traditional marketing practices. As I have stated in my previous posts, social media is a tool meant to integrate into an organizations marketing strategy and overall operations, it is not meant to stand-alone. A social media marketing plan will directly affect an organizations people and processes at various levels …
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Because the business environment is always evolving, evaluating currents trends in business and marketing (in and out of the social media environment) is a great way to help identify opportunities as well as threats. These continual changes in the social media environment impact brands and businesses, therefore they should be identified and analyzed frequently. Many times trend identification can lead to a great opportunity to fill a void and can also be a source of great strategic advantage. When discussing current social media trends in my social media MBA courses, there are three that I believe to be pertinent to any …
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Social media marketing is an extension of traditional marketing methods, principles, and theory. Successful marketing, regardless if it is Social or not, revolves around AIDA, a traditional marketing concept! You have to get your customer’s Attention, build their Interest in your product, and convince them they want your offer by building Desire. Finally, the consumer will take Action and make a purchase. Social media is a tool to accomplish all of this. In some ways, it can be a better, more efficient way, but again it is still just a tool in your marketing tool belt. Social media gives business …
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If you are a follower of this blog and the Social Media MBA series, you will recall that last month we discussed social media platforms and their potential uses for businesses and consumers. This month, I want you to be thinking about the technology that is enabling social media and how it drives new business. Social media has changed the way people use the Internet and it has shaped the technology used to deliver it. It has created new ways to drive business and it has changed the way brands market products and services. While enabling social interaction and the creation …
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As I write this blog post, I am wrapping up another term of teaching two Social Media MBA courses: Social Media Marketing and Social Media Marketing Strategy. I am reminded why I love teaching social media while viewing students final papers, wiki projects, and blog projects. These students have passion, they enjoy learning about these effective new ‘tools’ we have for the marketing industry, and they cannot wait to start the next social media course! This first course of three (Social Media Marketing), is a real eye-opener for some who know little or nothing about social media and what it has …
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Throughout this article, I will be speaking strictly from my experience as to how social media is introduced in universities as an adjunct faculty member within Marketing and Management departments. Therefore, I am not referring to other disciplines or courses other than my own. Social Media as a tool for educators: Most college courses incorporate some form of social media into learning material, so most students are familiar with basic uses of the medium. Considering most students are already using such platforms as Facebook and YouTube, it only makes sense to utilize these tools for education. Students are using social …
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As social networks and their potential value to business are becoming apparent, marketing professionals should have a solid knowledge of social media and more importantly social media marketing. Simply having a grasp on how to post on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or another platform is not sufficient. Marketing professionals need to understand how to integrate social into marketing strategies. The term “Social Media” should not be confused with “Social Media Marketing”, there is a distinction to be made between the two. Social media is an evolving and changing assortment of platforms and tools that enable businesses and consumers to share dialogue, …
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