Blogging continues to be an excellent way to engage with people. By offering unique and relevant content that interests your audience, you can stimulate conversation around your brand and help spread the news about your expertise, your drive and what your unique brand offers.
Due to the rising popularity of social media, so many people claiming to be social media experts have popped up. Many are branding themselves as expert bloggers, expert social marketers, and even expert Facebook users. There was a very popular thought-leader who once advised everyone that if they didn’t understand social media, they could simply get a person in their 20’s or one of their grandchildren to teach them how it works.
A real social media expert
But utilizing social media as your personal brand communication channel isn’t as simple as knowing how to post updates and pictures on Facebook. And even if you’ve been blogging for ages, it doesn’t mean you’re necessarily a good blogger.
Social media may be easy for most people, but it takes marketing and communication training to get the results you want. Simply being “of a certain age” doesn’t make you a social media expert.
How do you find the real social media experts and bloggers? What are the things you should look for?
1. They understand your brand message
First of all, it’s important that any person you assign to be your social media marketer must understand your brand message. They need to know how to align the use of different social media platforms with your business and objectives. You want your message to be at the forefront of your social media campaign, since this is what defines your brand and makes you unique.
2. They understand your brand voice
The voice of your brand is uniquely yours and your social media person needs to understand it so that they can adequately represent you in social media. You need to have a consistent voice across the board so that people can recall you and not get confused.
Let’s say your company has a blog but numerous people are posting on it. Monitoring their posts ensures that what they’re posting continues to be relevant to your industry, and that a similar theme and voice is maintained in every post. This is why it can be an advantage if only one person manages your blog, to ensure that your brand voice remains consistent and relevant.
3. They have ways to measure progress and success
Though it can be argued that true brand awareness and user engagement is practically impossible to measure, still your social media expert should know different social monitoring tools that can help you measure the progress and success of your campaign.
If they say it’s impossible, then you’d be better off finding another person for the job. Real social media experts should have specific metrics set in place in order to measure the success of your social media reach.
4. They know how to manage your reputation well
When it comes to branding, your reputation is everything – it can make or break your brand. The person or people you hire to manage your social media accounts should know how to manage your reputation as well. They need to know how to monitor any mentions of your brand, and be able to respond in a timely and efficient manner.
Your brand reputation is invaluable and can be ruined in a single click. So make sure that your social media representative knows how to manage it well.
5. Be updated about the current trends
Since social media continues to evolve continuously today, it’s essential that the person who manages your social media campaign is able to stay on top of what’s currently trending and where most of your audience can be found. They shouldn’t just rely on old methods that are tried and tested. Are they willing to take risks and keep up to date on what’s happening?
For example, bloggers today don’t reply simply on their blog to promote their content. They also utilize different social networking sites in order to get their voice heard.
6. There’s no right age for social media experts
Even if a person was seemingly born with a mouse glued to their hands, it still takes social media training, skills and knowledge to be a true social media expert. So don’t rely on a kid who knows how to post status updates and pictures on Facebook to manage your campaign.
Your business reputation hangs in the balance with every interaction you have whether it’s online or offline. Do you trust that in the hands of someone whose qualifications merely are that they are “of that age” that seems to understand all these new technological advances?
Author:
Maria Elena Duron, is managing editor of the Personal Branding Blog, CEO (chief engagement officer) of buzz2bucks.com – a word of mouth marketing firm. She helps create connection, credibility, community and cha-ching through mobile marketing and social commerce around your brand. She is co-founder of #brandchat – a weekly Twitter chat focused on every aspect of branding.
