Social Media Marketers: Will they stay or will they go now?

I’m BACK!

Sorry for the blog hiatus, as I was working on a few different projects and wanted to concentrate on the growth of those. Since my last post I also moved out on my own, and learned to be much more inspired to work harder. Naturally I become inspired and motivated by social media related growth, but then I question this growth as well? Is social media, and especially social media jobs, a fad?

Recently I went on a good two week streak of job searching, resulting in nothing more than a few good contacts and one great lead. I focused on two areas, one being social media and one being hospitality. I would love to be able to focus strongly on social media, and I try to do this, but in the back of my head I keep thinking, will these jobs last? Hence why I keep hospitality in mind as well, everyone is going to need a hotel!Image

Marketing itself has been around for a donkeys age, with Gutenberg and the printing press making mass media more accessible. Businesses saw they could get their name out, and since then it hasn’t stopped growing. Many different versions of marketing are out there, and social media is the most recent. The difference between social media and what the professionals call “traditional” mediums, is that social media is much more accessible to the general public. Almost everyone has access to Facebook or Twitter, and therefore could take part in social media marketing. Not everyone has access to traditional forms of marketing like radio, television or print advertisements.  Herein lies my confusion as to if social media marketing as a profession, will last. I of course wouldn’t write a blog on social media unless I believed that it will last. I tend to second guess it every once in a while though, but in the long run, social media marketing is just another form of marketing.

Admen have talents in certain areas, and social media marketers have a talent to market in a certain way. Marketing and social media have to work seamlessly in order to have the most impact, and the social media marketer does this. Social media loses its appeal when marketing becomes to apparent, and selling takes precedence over the act of being social. Therefore, some people have the special talent of creating campaigns and ads that are directly social media related, where engaging the audience, in turn, creates a buzz about a product or company. This is different than the graphic artist or ad exec that has a talent for words and can create a slogan for a car commercial. Social media engages audiences while most marketing speaks to the audience, and each involves a different talent. Therefore, social media marketing I believe is a talent that some do have, and a profession that I believe will continue to grow!

 

I hope….

Twitter is all about timing

Any good sale or new release, the best way to gain the most impact is based on when to make the announcement. I find that all the emails I get from companies about the newest sale are at strategic times. I’ll receive them at midnight or later so I see them when I first wake up, or around lunch time, typically when people have a break from work. This is intentional of course, consumers are less distracted, and these e-mail blasts will have a larger impact.

The same goes for Twitter. I recently started using the auto schedule feature in Hootsuite a lot more. I always knew it was there but never really gave it a try. Watching the CTR and retweet rates compared to other tweets that we’re sent at random was impressive, there was a clear distinction between the two.

Check out this article on timing and 9 other great tips about gaining the most from your tweets!

Gain the Most from your tweets

Businesses rise and fall and rise again

Everyone is ripping on Apple as of lately, saying that they are blowing it, and Steve Jobs was the only visionary. While Mr Jobs was very much a visionary and brought back Apple from the depths to the massive corporation it is now, it wasn’t just him. Businesses go through cycles, just as demand rises and falls, so does success. Apple may be slumping in sales a little bit, but that is normal for any company. Everyone loves to jump on the bandwagon and bash Apple (see here). One must remember though that Samsung, Apples biggest competitor, went through the same thing. As the laws of physics state, what goes up must come down. As one company rises, one company falls and vise versa. Samsung profits have steadily declined in 2010 and 2011, two years that Apple was in its prime. It’s not a coincidence it’s just business.

So all you naysayers jumping on the post Steve Jobs bashing Apple, it’s a business cycle. Apple will soon start gaining its traction back and prices will rise. It’s simple business, so stop blaming Apple for not knowing what they’re doing.

Google is planning something!

Google is planning something!

Looks like Apple isn’t the only one creating secret projects and creating a PR storm about it. Google is building a 4 story tall barge off the coast of San Francisco, but no one knows what it’s for and Google isn’t talking it seems. What do you think it’s for? Either way I like the fact that Google is taking after Apple!

Think different?

As Apple releases it’s newest and greatest technologies, as everyone sits by and takes note, I notice something different. I watched Steve Jobs biopic… “jObs” when it was released and I found a big theme was his motto “Think Different”. As I understood not just from the film but from just watching Apple grow, this is how the company became so successful. Mr. Jobs didn’t want to be like everyone else, he wanted his company to stand out. He did this by focusing on the minute details, and flipping conventional computers on their head, example: creating the tablet market by introducing the iPad. Recently though, as more products are unveiled, we see a trend.

As we know, iPhone was released, then the iPhone 3G, then the iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 4 brought a new form factor, then small internal upgrade again for the 4S. The 5 brought a new form factor and now the 5S upgrade, again mainly internal. The iPad followed the same upgrade cycle as well, maybe with a bit more flair with new names like Air, but we all know it’s an S upgrade. There’s only so Many times a phone or iPad can become thinner, lighter and faster?

My thought is that Apple, although they do keep updating us with new and faster technology, is it differing from the motto that made them so great? I don’t believe it is. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Apple and stand by them all the way. Apple has always had a way of creating a stir, and I think they’re going to have to really do something drastic to keep up that buzz. They set the bar so high, but in the tech industry, you can’t just sit back and wait. Knowing Apple, I have no doubt they’ve got something cool, most likely am iWatch from the rumors we’ve heard, up their sleeve. I think they way they release the next product, should be different from the rest. An invite to the new campus where Tim Cook walks out with the watch, may not be so exciting. What should they do? Not to sure yet, but I have no doubt it’ll be good. But also be weary, as they build buzz and pour millions I’m R&D to make it perfect, I believe they should also rethink their introduction strategy. Once again, go back to their roots and think different.

They also have to make sure they stand out from the others, faster and better looking only go so far.

What are your thoughts on Apple current situation? Should they continue with the same update schedule for their products, same way of introducing products? Let’s hear about it!

20131022-205051.jpg