Just because someone uses Twitter and Facebook all the time does not make them an online marketer or social media guru.
This is directed to no one in general, but I sure see it a lot.
When not blogging about hip hop marketing, I am a director of new media for a prominent media property, and so I occasionally take on “side work,” consulting and such. In scouting for such work both in the hip hop entertainment world and the “regular” corporate world, it is often laughable how some companies or entities want to relegate their social media work to interns or $10/hr part timers (or journalism work, but that’s another story…).
When your reputation can easily be irrevocably ruined by one mistweet, an aggressively overzealous twitterer, an irresponsible wall post or sloppy blog entry, how can you trust your permanent online image to an intern?
Think about it. You wouldn’t you allow interns to create the treatment and script for a TV advertisement, cast, direct and film it, and send it to the networks to be broadcast on their own, would you?
When you place your online reputation into the hands of interns, or even seasoned veterans who don’t fully understand the bigger picture of the new media landscape, you risk damaging your credibility, tarnishing your brand in a time when there is little room for digital error. Not only that, with no overall strategy in mind and no expert analysis, you will hardly make a dent in whatever grand online scheme you expect to achieve.
You would never allow interns to handle the TV commercial, why is online marketing and social media management treated any different?
This affects music artists and companies in the underground and independent hip hop world as well. For example, as a DIY artist, if you are not utilizing Twitter strictly as a marketing tool, complete with some kind of strategy, then you are not doing much more that wasting time, preaching to your already-established choir and yelling against the wind.
Yes. Strictly as a marketing tool. With a strategy. Even the thought-of-consciousness ranting timeline of an up-and-coming hip hop artist should be a part of an overall Twitter and online marketing strategy. The smart ones operate with some kind of strategy in mind, even if it’s not completely thought-out, or work with creative minded social media consultants (like me. wink, wink) who are creative and experienced enough to explain how to develop one and why one is needed.
These are the ones who will help their chances of success.
(They’re probably the same ones who used MySpace as a marketing tool instead of just a way to get laid.)
The bottom line is that a real online marketer or social media strategist possesses skills and knowledge that require much more than asking “Do you love social media? Do you use Twitter and Facebook all day?” Companies, small, medium and large, artists, and artist management teams, need to realize this and stop thinking of online marketing as entry-level.
