The need for customized social marketing

So there I was Thursday night at the first mass Richmond Social Markering Club (#smcrva) meeting “Twittering” away with friends and acquaintances that I had met online thinking that all of this is the wave of the future.  In the perfect world, we’d all be cross promoting ourselves, our clients, our likes and dislikes on social marketing platforms and life would be wonderful.  Yippee!!!

If there is one thing I’ve learned in the six months that I’ve immersed myself (as much I can be immersed) into this great social markering space….is that the world isn’t that perfect.  And quite frankly it shouldn’t be.

There are many organizations out there that just aren’t ready for all the social marketing has to offer.  In fact, they are doing a great job communicating to their constituencies without a lot of these online bells and whistles, not because they don’t want to but because they are doing the appropriate amount of due diligence to make sure that they and their audience can handle it.

Fast forward less than 24 hours later and I was presenting to some pretty important folks with the YMCA of Greater Richmond.  This is a very thoughtful group led by a very thoughtful VP for Marketing and Communications, Todd Gray.  In their world, especially since a great deal of their audience is under age, they need to be extremely careful about what they communicate, who does that communicating, and who consumes that communications.  In their world you just can’t throw up a Facebook fan page, or have someone start a blog, or start Twittering without thinking through EVERY step.  That being said, they are taking steps carefully in the world of electronic communications but not without a great deal of the appropriate amount of thought.

And that is my takeaway for this post.  There is no “cookie-cutter, one-fits-all” social marketing or networking approach, no off-the-shelf program.  We are spending a great deal of time not only explaining what social marketing is but also making sure it fits well in a number of ways for our clients.  They include:

  1. The client’s ability to understand and participate in the execution
  2. The ability to generate content for all the platforms
  3. Which audience or audiences to you/client want to reach
  4. What is the online brand you/client want to present
  5. The amount of time/money the client has to spend

Some of these answers can come from “listening” or researching how the client is already perceived online.  Some are answered by the company’s audiences and how they receive communications.  Some are answered by the limitations management places on the client and also outside factors (like legal issues) that you or the client have not control over.

In this day and age you can start a Facebook fan page or Twitter accounts in about a minute.  It is what you do, the questions you ask about goals, and ultimately the content you create that will lead to the success or failure of your social marketing campaigns.  There is no global approach, it case or client needs to be treated separately.

Do you agree?  Would love to hear your thoughts.

Jon Newman

In 2002 Jon cofounded The Hodges Partnership and has helped to grow it into one of the country’s largest public relations firms (based on O’Dwyer’s annual rankings). Jon has taught communications as an adjunct professor at VCU, speaks regularly at conferences and meetings and blogs and tweets about public relations and marketing issues.

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