As a newbie in the field, a freelancer and someone who talks to millions of people about social media everyday, here are some questions and thoughts on the subject that have been coming up a lot.

• Social Media Marketing is cheap, but it’s not free.

Sure the tools (Facebook, Linked In, Twitter) are free. But you either need to learn how to use the tools — which takes a couple of weeks of intense being glued to these networks — or you need someone who knows how to use the tools to … well use them. Now by reaching out to someone else, you’re acknowledging that they have a set of skills which you do not possess. And that they have a lot of time to spend on it.

After talking to a lot of people, I’ve found a complete disconnect between the number of people seeking these services (very many) and the amount of money they’re willing to pay for it (very little). In fact, there have been many articles in the US media about how social media marketing responsibilities are perfect for agencies’ summer interns. Which leads to the question…

• If it’s so important, why are college students being assigned this responsibility?
  

Yikes, almost seems like I shouldn’t be saying this… don’t bite the hand that bites you and all that In the future, everyone will be on social media networks. Understanding social media will be a standard skill you’re expected to have, — like… knowing how to use Google or Microsoft Word. But until corporates, brands and small business owners start investing (their own time and lots of training money) in these tools and understand them completely, it makes sense that they’d need a college student/consultant to help them jump on the bandwagon (and ghost write/maintain their web presence).

@GregPC , VP at Weber Shandwick, pointed out that there is also a huge difference between using social media for work purposes and using it on a personal level. Until businesses are willing to embrace social media completely, they need someone who is immersed in it and passionate about it to be  at the helm.

• Social Media has a long long long long way to go.

Clearly.

• Social Media = Building relationships. There’s a lot of wining, dining, and well hanging out. It doesn’t happen over night.

I’m lucky to have clients that understand this and are extremely patient even though I can see it isn’t easy for them. Nonetheless, there’s a lot of pressure from traditional media and folk who are waiting to see if social media is ‘just a fad.’ It’s not. results takes a while. Brands like Coke weren’t built in a day.

• Results are different for everyone.

Some things go viral before other things. Some things never go viral. Social media is a great tool for a broad range of products/services. But results vary. In general, the quirkier the product/campaign, the more virality it has. (Think YouTube). Freebies tend to work pretty well too.

• So how long do you have to wait to see results?

Now this doesn’t have a really solid answer. It depends on the nature of the campaign, of the product, the objectives, the general (economical) environment, the budget, the audience, the…. you get the point. I recently spoke to someone who said they only take on clients who understand that they will not see results for four months. That seems reasonable — gives marketers enough time to conduct market research, come up with a well thought out strategy and begin the implementation. Also saves them the stress of having to get results NOW (immediate traffic analysis) and lets them focus on actually getting good long term results (nature of relationships, scale, retention etc).

I’m going to stop here for now. I’d love to hear about your thoughts, and your experiences.

Comment away!

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