Social Media Marketing vs Marketing

An author not yet immersed in social media asked me about a consult for promoting a guest blog post via social media. After looking at the author’s current social media author presence, I explained that what the author really needed was a marketing consult instead of a social media consult.

The author asked for a clarification of the difference, which led me to realize how important this difference is.

Social media marketing is utilizing various social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to share information that, by sharing, can help get positive exposure for your brand, book or business.

Marketing in general is an overall strategy that starts with figuring out who your target audience is and how best to engage that audience in the places where that audience “hangs out.”

It may be that for some products or services the social media arena is not a top marketing channel, whereas for other products or services social media is the most important marketing channel. And, of course, it is important to realize that a target audience may change where it “hangs out,” making it necessary to keep current on where your target audience is.

Misconceptions about social media marketing:

In addition, this author had some misconceptions about the time needed to utilize social media effectively.

The author assumed that social media required a daily blog post. First, this is definitely not a requirement unless you are trying to get SEO love for your website by publishing a daily post. (And remember that SEO algorithms are secret although we can make an educated guess that targeted daily posts help site rankings.)

Yes, I believe that most people, including authors, should have their own websites for a safety net (in case their social media accounts disappear overnight, for example, due to some infraction of platform rules). Yet this does not require an extensive time commitment if a daily blog post strategy is not an optimum marketing strategy for you.

Social media participation, though, does work best when it is a daily or almost daily activity. Yet once you have optimized your account bios and learned effective utilization methods for each particular site, you can spend only a few minutes a day on an active social media presence.

Twitter link on your LinkedIn profile:

If you currently have a Twitter link on your LinkedIn account, yet when people click on that link they discover you have not tweeted in months, I recommend you take the Twitter link off your LinkedIn profile. There is no requirement for having a Twitter link on your LinkedIn profile. Yet having an inactive one can detract from your public image.

In conclusion, what is important in a marketing strategy as well as a social media marketing strategy is to understand what your overall marketing goals are and how to use social media as part of these goals without spending hours daily.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a digital marketer as well as a fiction and nonfiction author. For online marketing strategies for authors, see her book TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON at www.amzn.com/B009RBJW3E