Social media marketing | Liz Hover's Diary of a Web Gal

This weekend I whipped up a post for One Degree about blogging.

And I’d love you to read it if you’ve even remotely considered blogging and quickly swept the idea away.

What’s One Degree? It’s a website for Canadian marketers like me. I tweet for One Degree.

Thanks to Peter Mosely (the boss at One Degree) for asking me to write the post.

(BTW: I’m cool with punctuation but my headline font isn’t. It doesn’t have any apostrophes).

Today I mastered the art of Facebook markup language.

What on earth is Facebook markup language? It’s the web coding used by Facebook that allows fan page administrators to add fun stuff to their pages such as images, additional tabs and more.

I’ve battled with it for several years. It’s only after getting a better grasp of HTML that I was able to do this.

I think it’s fair to say that there isn’t a week that goes by when I don’t achieve some kind of personal goal like this.

I read all the time.

I wake up most mornings excited to go to work.

I don’t have a degree.

At school my favourite subjects were history and communications studies. I excelled at them.

I did go to university but I was a little older than most in my year because I had to re-take courses and exams.

I left after six months. I was bored rigid. My major was women’s studies with communications and sociology.

I’m 35 and until three years ago I regretted not completing my degree.

At that time I got very lucky. I found my passion – a passion that I was able to experience in my day job at the National Screen Institute – Canada (NSI) where I’m the digital media manager.

I manage the NSI Online Short Film Festival. I commission content for the NSI Online Industry Centre. I also produce content myself.

I manage NSI’s online spaces – I’m the voice of Twitter, Facebook and all the other online places you’ll find NSI. I deliver social media workshops in Winnipeg.

Why does this excite me more than getting a degree or propell me into the office every day?

Because I live my life on an ‘acclerated learning curve’ to coin the phrase from Adam Singer’s recent post on Future Buzz.

I’m entirely self-taught.

I’m hungry for information like you wouldn’t believe.

I spend a large part of my spare time learning. Learning about the internet. Learning about anything I can get my hands on that interests me.

Nobody made me do this. And nobody told me to do this. It’s just the way I choose to live.

In his post, Adam says, ‘You know nothing.’

I think that’s my motivator. I have a perpetual appetite for knowing as much as I can. And as soon as I do, more comes along.

If you aren’t happy in your job or feeling unfufiled I urge you to read Adam’s post – one of the most important posts I’ve read in a very long time.

Yes, it’s true, most people don’t live like this. But they should.

I feel extremely lucky to be one of them.

With that self-recognition I’ve been able to pay it forward.

My learning doesn’t start and stop with me. I’ve travelled to Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary to deliver workshops on social media. For me, that is the ultimate fulfilment.

Not only am I learning like crazy but I’m trying my hardest to teach others.

What purpose does knowledge serve if it sits inside one person’s head?

So if you’re scratching your own head wondering why your life seems incomplete, please remember that a passion for learning can be vital to your success.

Photo courtesy of ittybittiesforyou via a Creative Commons Licence

There’s no piece of paper that says you’re a marketer.

Well, a Bachelor of Commerce, but let’s not be so literal.

We come from all kinds of backgrounds. Some come up through the creative side, writing or designing ads. Some are business school grads.

Because of this diversity and lack of oversight, you also get your layer of pretenders without much practical experience.

Social media marketing and the self-branding smokescreen of virtual life are bringing such self-styled gurus out of the woodwork, with thousands of “social experts” clamouring for attention.

This is really annoying to some people, though I think personal hubris is a quality of stars and that people with real ideas deserve a chance, however “proletarian” their roots. And anyway, the lack of official permission makes for an exciting Wild West meritocracy, in all stripes of marketing.

Though there are no hard and fast qualifications to be a marketer, there are many knowledge and skill sets that are darn useful when it comes to social media marketing.

Let’s take a look at the qualities that shine in the online persuasion space. All definitions from Dictionary.com.

Marketing (mar’ki-ting)

The act or process of buying and selling in a market.

Well that’s pretty interesting right there. Selling is a component of marketing, but so is buying. Marketers are consumers too. Put your customer hat on and see how your social media efforts look.

Communication (kuh-myoo-ni-key-shuhn)

The imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs.

Hey, there’s a pretty broad spectrum there. Are you a great talker with a big smile? Make a video! Is visual language your thing? Design it without words. Use your strengths to convey your message.

Strategic thinking (struh-tee-jik thing-king)

A plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result.

Believe it or not, goals were not big in early social media. Everyone just set out to make friends without setting up metrics. How do you know you’re there if you don’t know where you’re going?

Psychology (sahy-kol-uh-jee)

The science of human behaviour.

Social media is about interacting with … people! People have a host of very easy to recognize (and manipulate, not that marketers ever do that) motivations. Know when to stroke egos, suggest inclusion, and foster tribalism.

Sociology (soh-see-ol-uh-jee)

The science of the fundamental laws of social relations.

Gee, what could be more useful to a community builder? Understand the interaction of content producers, joiners, lurkers, the people who comment and the people who brandvocate for you. Give them what they need to do what they want to do.

It comes down to understanding people.

Marketers are people who venture into the market – and let that conjure up a big ole’ funky flea market, rife with vintage delights, quirky gems and stuff you’ve never seen before, all fitting together in unexpected ways – and fulfill people’s needs.

If you’re useful, friendy, and facilitate people’s goals in the online space, hey … you’re a social media marketer!

Contributed by the wonderful Erica Glasier.

Erica makes things (including the illustration with this post) and writes things.

She also tweets for Tactica Interactive Communications, a Winnipeg-based interactive agency.

In January, I delivered three lunchtime workshops – open to the public – on the topic of social media.

These were presented by my employer, the National Screen Institute – Canada (NSI) – a film and television training school based in Manitoba.

We’ve put together a highlights video showing the best bits from the sessions.

I cover a bunch of things beginning with my definition of social media. I talk about the importance of genuine communication online and why you would even bother to spend so much time working on all these social networking sites.

Credits: Four ways social media is changing business information from Mashable; Outposts graphic from ProBlogger.

I’m a huge fan of Adam Singer who runs a wonderful blog called The Future Buzz.

He recently put together a useful post about the future marketer’s skill set. I really love what he includes and wanted to share this with you.

Below I have only abbreviated Adam’s post. Please read the full post here: Tomorrow’s marketing skill set

1.  Writing skills are critical

2.  Meaningful insight into analytics/interpretation of data

3.  Nexus of marketing specializations

4.  Digital strategy development

5.  Leadership

6.  Not afraid to fail

7.  Always experimenting

8.  Understanding of tools/technologies/applications/programming languages

9.  Fresh thinking with content

10.  An understanding of how to orchestrate buzz

11.  They’ll be members of the media

12.  Content marketing will be second nature

13.  They will champion niche media over mass

14.  Understanding of the rules that govern groups

15.  Ability to tap power users and influencers