This post isn’t about cheese. It’s about how SM practitioners cannot afford to take a siloed approach to social media. If you do you’ll be left behind.
Have you checked the temperature of your social media game lately?
You better plan to BRING IT to your line up in 2011.
Over the last three to four years many social practitioners could pose as a social media strategist and only have to know a lot about one thing…social.
Now…integrated is the new game and if you’re not up to speed on channel segmentation across the board (marketing, advertising, public relations, PPS, display, print, online, web AND social) you’ll be as out (hopefully) as Brett Favre next season.
It’s important that you educate your clients from the start that you’re not just on the scene to provide a social-media-strategy-bolt-on to their communications program. That approach will not breed success.
Discuss with your client the importance of them sharing the breadth of their entire marketing communications strategy so you can provide insight into how social will integrate into their current channels and work seamlessly.
If you’re really brilliant and you’re a marcom jack of all trades, you’ll review all their channels and provide advice how they can improve or update other activities that aren’t necessarily social. (Like their SEO needs a major tune up.)
As you know social is about bringing value. Not only to your clients customers, but also to them. Own it like your creed.
The deck has been reshuffled and it’s getting split again.
Integrated marketing strategists, not social media strategists, as they’ve been called, will be the newly crowned and emerging “gurus” (as the media buzz about) on the scene over the next few years.
A decade or more of experience and an expansive resume of all encompassing marcom and digital knowledge will seal the deal in the future as social media specialists are identified, weeded out and tossed to the curb and integration advisors and social business analysts will become the new black.
Today “content is king,” and indeed it’s a critical component of your social media approach in order to successfully engage and develop strong relationships with your audience, but soon you’ll be hearing “integration is king.”
So what’s your game strategy in 2011? What will you do to stay competitive in the social media sphere? What steps will you start today to learn more about everything marketing communications to stay on top of your game?
Do you forecast you’ll have game in 2011?
Community Management Extra
How does your integrated marketing communications knowledge stack up? How would you grade yourself in the following (1-5, 5 being highest):
- Online Marketing
- Social Media
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- PPC (pay-per-click)
- Web Analytics
- Mobile & Text
- Display & Banners
- Blogs & Microblogs
- RSS, SMS & MMS
- Podcasts
- Digital Press, Radio, TV & Outdoor
Offline Marketing
- Print (newspaper & magazine)
- Radio
- TV
- Outdoor
- Sponsorships
- Public & Media Relations
- Direct Mail
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