In Loving Memory of Social Media Marketing

The landscape of digital marketing is ever-changing and constantly evolving. I landed my first role in digital marketing only a few years ago and already, so much has changed.

But as well as changes within the industry, my attitudes, perceptions, and opinions of the industry have changed too, especially towards social media marketing.

Social media marketing is dead.

I know a lot of you'll be reading this, completely disagreeing with me. That's fine. Perhaps my choice of words are a touch dramatic, but let me explain.

As I've said, I've not worked in digital marketing long - just over three years. But in that short space of time, social media marketing's changed dramatically.

My first role was as a social media account manager, and very quickly, I began to see changes in how social media marketing was panning out.

Facebook had recently become a publicly listed company, and therefore felt the pressure of being answerable to its shareholders - those looking for a return on their investment. Cue the many algorithm tweaks which altered the way status updates were appearing in news feeds.

It soon became apparent that you had to spend money to serve your content to a decent number of your community. Facebook was no longer free for marketers.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't an attack on Facebook. I use Facebook on a daily basis. I spend money here and there during campaigns, making use of its pretty impressive targeting parameters as well as the ability to upload specific audience lists to ensure you're reaching exactly who you want to target - its ad function is actually pretty powerful.

But when does having to spend money, on a regular basis, cease being 'social' and just become plain marketing?

Facebook isn't a social media platform anymore; it's just a marketing platform. But most of you'll know that already.

But here's a question; should we be trying to market to consumers via a platform which is a social platform?

Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed a contradiction in what I'm saying, but let me clear that up for you.

For us marketers, Facebook, for example, is seen merely as a marketing tool, but for consumers Facebook's still seen as a way to connect with friends and family, to share photos and funny videos, to be, well, social.

With that in mind, should we be constantly trying to 'sell' via social? Put yourself in the shoes of a consumer; you're on Facebook looking at photos, for example, of a loved-one's new-born baby, and you have some business trying to ram its products or services down your throat. I know what I'd do, either hit the unfollow button, or worse, the unlike button - both very counter-productive outcomes.

I do, however, make an exception to this during campaigns, serving well-placed, well-targeted ads. These ads, though, NEVER include prices on them. They're mostly used an awareness mechanism, or a means to drive traffic to our website.

But on the whole, social media should be used to be fun and jovial. Businesses should use social media to be engaging, use pictures and videos to build trust and, perhaps most importantly, manage their reputation. Social media marketing? More like social brand reputation management.

If you're engaging, manage your reputation in the right way, and can gain the trust of your online community, you shouldn't need to 'sell' your business - your community will already know how great your products, services, and customer service is.

Couple your businesses new 'social' approach to social media with other initiatives such as PPC, SEO, and content marketing, amongst others, and you're on to a winner.

During my time working exclusively in social media marketing, some of my clients were keen to put all their marketing eggs in one basket - the social media basket. This isn't how digital marketing should be approached. Digital marketing is a mixture of all sorts of online disciplines, like the ones I just mentioned - oh, and social brand reputation management too!

To focus solely on just one initiative and pretty much ignore other means of digital marketing is just foolish and, to a degree, narrow-minded.

Many of you reading this may well disagree with me, but that's OK. This is just my interpretation of how the social element in digital marketing has changed - if any of you have your own thoughts, though, please feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings, and please, feel free to share.