Social Media Specialization
Even the most savvy small business owners are astounded by the profit potential created by a carefully crafted social media campaign but why do the pro’s get superior results? Is it a closely guarded secret? While it’s true that every social media agency has a few tips up their sleeve to differentiate their services from those of the competition the answer is no, that really isn’t the secret to success. What about consistency? Once again, consistency plays a significant role but isn’t the full story. How about access? That also is an important ingredient that distinguishes a professional social media consulting firm from average experts but still doesn’t explain the entire difference. Even when combining all three – secret know-how, consistency and access – chances are the results won’t fully approximate those of a professional social media consulting firm. The truth is something more mundane, less tangible and a lot more complex…specialization.
Social Media Specialization
The concept of specialization isn’t new. The medical field has been using specialists for years due to the complexity and rapid expansion of science. It’s no longer feasible for a general practitioner to understand all there is to know about the heart, brain, immunology or other functions of the body. In much the same way, marketing has now become such a large, complex and dynamic field that people are beginning to specialize in order to obtain the greatest level of insight, understanding and optimum outcome. This has important implications for small business owners – implications you must understand in order to select the right service.
Generalists versus Specialists
By their very nature, social media marketing experts are specialists when compared to the larger field of marketing or advertising . But today, social media marketing has grown so large – so fast – that experts are now beginning to create sub-specializations such as the creation and distribution of viral video campaigns on YouTube or analytic experts that spend all their time deciphering data in much the same way a forensic accountant reviews an end of year summary. If your eyes are glazing over just thinking about it – don’t worry! One of the benefits derived from outsourcing social media marketing to a professional agency is the ability to turn over all those mundane – but important – tasks to someone better suited for the job. Better yet, not only does outsourcing social media free up your valuable time but good old Uncle Sam also allows you to deduct the expense!
Types of Specialization
Social media marketing entails a lot of different components including many traditional forms of marketing. Remember, a successful campaign should compliment – not compete – with other forms of marketing, communication and outreach. So, what types of specialization are in the most demand? The same ones that provide exclusive services that small business owners need and want. Remember, it’s just one more reason outsourcing social media marketing makes sense; you get all the expertise for only a small fraction of the cost. For example, take a look at just a few of the commonly encountered areas of specialization your small business may benefit from:
Media Relations Specialist – Depending on the size of your business and social media marketing objectives, a media relations specialist can help with everything from public relations campaigns to white papers. This position is often well positioned to work with both corporate and consumer relations.
Internet Marketing Expert – Although social media is a sub-specialty of marketing in general, SEO or search engine marketing is a closely related area of expertise. As social media sites like Google+ begin to integrate relationships into the search algorithm, the importance of collaboration between SEO and social media is of greater importance than ever. We at Maximize consider ourselves to be incredibly well versed in SEO – after all, we rank on the first or second page of Google for almost every keyword related to social media management. But we recognize that our core competency is truly social media, and that’s our focus.
Web Outreach or Customer Service Specialist – There is a clear demand for customer service via social media so it should come as no surprise that customer service specialists and/or web outreach positions are booming. These are often contracted positions with some product knowledge combined with strong communication skills. The ability to inform and engage clients is central to the success of this role.
Social Media Analyst – Accessing, analyzing and distributing data is the key responsibility of this position. In the past, access to information was the main objective for an analyst but today that has all changed. Now the problem isn’t trying to find the information but learning how to make sense of an overload of information. For example, what’s more important…demographics, timing or perhaps another totally unknown variable? Unless you make a living dealing with data, chances are you won’t know…but your social media marketing analyst will!
Digital Rights Management – Never heard of it? Don’t feel bad. Once considered the exclusive domain of major corporations, digitals rights and other IP concerns are of increasing importance to many middle and small sized business concerns.
Producer – Hollywood isn’t the only place that hires producers. In fact, most major websites have had full-time producers on staff for years. Now that the cost of bandwidth, video and other options have come down in price, more and more sites are turning to producers to create everything from viral video to integrated games.
Designers – Ohhh, the possibilities are nearly endless but it all starts with good design. Usability testing, disability compliance, mobile marketing and much more all hinge upon the intuitive understanding and ability to interact with the site. More than a few failures have been brought about from poorly designed sites.
This is just a small sample of the specialized types of services available when outsourcing social media marketing campaigns. There are literally dozens of other specialized areas of expertise all at your fingertips when contracting with a full service social media agency.
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