social-media-need-directing

Howdy folks! Rebecca here, blogging regularly once again in SSDB fashion (that’s Same Snark, Different Blog for you initialism noobs). If you managed to pry yourself away from the month-long Michael Jackson tribute festivities, you may have heard via Twitter, the 10e20 blog, and intermittent smoke signals that I recently joined the 10e20 team as the Director of Social Media. I’ll let the fanfare die down before I proceed…

Anyway, Chris gave me a rundown of what my new job responsibilities would be and we spent roughly 4 seconds brainstorming a fancy-schmancy job title to slap onto business cards and confuse my mother (who still doesn’t know what I do for a living, only understanding that I had an old Internet-something job before and a new Internet-something job now). Thus, the Director of Social Media was conjured and it left me wondering what that even meant. Does social media need “directing”?

Growing up and getting quickly acclimated to sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, for me the answer is “no” because social media, web 2.0, all those buzz wordy trends seem pretty second nature (I’m sure moreso for younger generations who don’t know how to use a rotary phone and have never heard of the Walkman). But after talking to Greg and getting a feel for what 10e20 has done for their clients in the past and after thinking about it from a business perspective, I think yes, social media needs some direction.

social-media-talkersA lot of people crap all over social media marketing because they think it’s just about getting some stupid list onto Digg. They talk about how it’s just a fad and that it’s oversaturated and doesn’t have the permanence that SEO or SEM do. I disagree (which is probably why Chris and Danielle hired me)–social media marketing isn’t just about hitting Digg or Reddit. Sure, viral marketing and StumbleUpon and all those other mainstays are a part of it, but the core of social media is about reaching out to your customers/audience and engaging them in a dialogue. It’s allowing their voice to be heard, whether that’s via blog comments, user generated content, tweets, upvoting stories or sharing content.

Social media is still a fairly new marketing tactic, which is why a lot of companies, much like with SEO, need some guidance. They understand that Twitter is this big new thing, but they don’t know how to set up an account and utilize it to its fullest potential. They want to make a video and share it/spread it around, but they don’t know the best way to go about doing it. They have great data and case studies, but they don’t know how to shape their content in a way that appeals to a large audience. And that’s where 10e20 and I come in. We help create, shape and direct these social media efforts through the appropriate channel. We help educate companies and people about various aspects of social media so that they can keep up with the ever-shifting marketing trends and have an edge over their competitors. And we look damn good doing it.

So yeah, I’m the Director of Social Media. It’s kind of different, but it’s also exciting and creative and, I think, absolutely essential in our current marketing environment. I’m really looking forward to taking a different approach to Internet marketing and helping our clients from the creative side of things rather than the technical. I’ll be sure to post often and share various tips, news, and, of course, rants about everything I learn in my new position. Hopefully you’ll let me direct you. :)