The Bloggin’ BUZZ

2 Tip Tuesday

They go by different names: social media strategist, social media expert, social media guru, etc. But is there a reason to hire one and how do you decide?

Social media is not a marketing strategy, but it should be a part of your overall marketing plan. If your marketing plan doesn’t include a social media, then you should put one together or hire someone to help you.

Here are two things to consider before hiring help for your social media strategy:

1. Is social media the focus of the person teaching or has it simply been an add-on to their current business?

Social media experts are popping out of the woodwork because it’s a hot topic. Not everyone that teaches social media is a strategist nor proficient in social media.

Ask yourself: Am I looking for someone to help me to learn how to use social media, or am I looking for someone to help me to integrate a long-term strategy?

This question will help you to be better suited to understanding what you are looking for and the skill set the person you are considering hiring must have.

2. Are you looking for a push or pull marketing strategist?

It is imperative for you to make this distinction before you begin looking.

A “Push Strategist” focuses on building a strategy that focuses on your business and how you can “push” your information out to as many people as possible using as many mediums as possible. This can also be called “Outbound Marketing”.

Pros and Cons of Push Marketing

Pros: This strategy can be extremely successful in the short term. This type of strategy relies on marketing as a numbers game. The more people see your product, the more people will buy it.

Cons: Because of the reliance on large numbers of people, the push marketer must always work on increasing the number of people that can see the message in order to gain new customers. In addition, with the focus on gaining more numbers, there is typically less focus on building relationships with current clients or prospects because it takes times away from building numbers.

A “Pull Strategist” focuses on building a strategy that focuses on your target market and ways that you can reach out to and get to know the individuals in your target market. This is also referred to as “Inbound Marketing”.

Pros and Cons of Pull Marketing

Pros: This strategy builds an awareness and deeper understanding of the individuals in your target market. With the focus on building relationships and adding value, the prospect will go to your website because they care and want to learn more from you. The prospect pays closer attention to your message and is more loyal. This type of marketing typically produces more raving fans who will spread your message for you.

Cons: This type of marketing is a time commitment and because of the time involved in relationship building and adding value, this marketing method can take longer to have a return on investment.

I hope these thoughts help you to make great decisions for yourself!

Please let me know your thoughts…have you experienced either of these types of marketers online? What are your thoughts about the two types?

Deidre Hughey

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 10:37 am and is filed under Deidre's Social Media Soapbox, Social Media 101 1/2. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.