By Tim McMahon, editor
Social Media Marketing Consultants
Social Media Marketing is a new field and just as happened in other new fields like web designers 15 years ago, companies are scrambling to find qualified people to perform this valuable service for them. This is truly an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a budding industry and make a name for yourself and carve out a lucrative career before others catch on.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is a relatively new method of promoting businesses via social media platforms and finding customers and ensuring customer satisfaction after you’ve found them. Companies are increasingly realizing how important happy customers are and that it is much more profitable to retain existing customers than to constantly look for new ones. Today, social media is not just used for finding long-lost colleagues or old High School friends on Facebook; or Tweeting about what you had for lunch on Twitter. Social media has turned out to be an important tool for businesses that want to create a successful online presence. As more and more people are using social media to search for the products they like, social media marketing has become a regular part of daily business transactions and businesses have discovered social media as a method to reach their target consumers and establish a pleasant brand experience online.
As a result, smart companies are shifting a part of their marketing dollars to social media. Large companies like Proctor & Gamble, Taco Bell, and Pepsi are budgeting huge amounts of money to manage brand perception and promote their products via social media. And in the process, they are creating the demand for thousands of Social Media Managers and Marketing Consultants.
So what do Social Media Marketing Consultants do?
Tap Into the Conversation
If an organization wants to find out the “chatter” in the marketplace about a particular product, they need to check the social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook in order to see what prospective customers think about the brand. Social Media Marketing Consultants have their fingers on the pulse of the community. They monitor the chatter and set up alerts related to keywords pertaining to the brand they are monitoring. By tapping into this network and spreading the word Social Media Marketing Consultants can quickly spread the good word or defuse bad chatter from dissatisfied customers.
Spread the News
Social Media Marketing Consultants will often spread interactive online content, in relation to the commodity that’s being launched. For example if Pepsi wants to launch a new soft-drink it might create a game or a contest related to the new product to create a buzz around it with the hopes of it going viral and creating positive word-of-mouth from influencers.
Perform Online Customer Service
If an online linked in Social Media person discovers a dissatisfied customer he or she will quickly step in to diffuse the situation and turn that dissatisfaction into an amazing customer experience. Smart companies are empowering their Social Media consultants to handle customer service issues quickly before they become media nightmares.
The qualities of an “Ideal” Social Media Marketing Consultant
Ideal social media consultants are personable, outgoing, and like to talk. They can build a following just because they are fun to be around. They are linked to a group of “influencers” who thus become prospective brand ambassadors within their selected social-media platforms.
An Example of a Good Social Media Marketing Consultant in Action
I recently heard of a woman who went to a tire store to get her tires replaced. After going to the counter and filling out her information she was sitting in the waiting room. A few minutes later her phone notified her of a friend request on Facebook. But when she looked at it she didn’t recognize the requester. After looking at his Facebook profile she realized that it was the guy from behind the counter at the tire store. She thought it was “creepy” and tweeted about it to her 50 twitter followers. Less than 15 minutes later she had a response from the Tire store headquarters apologizing for the incident. Of course this was really the headquarters’s Social Media Marketing Consultant monitoring tweets (possibly from home) but with the authority of the company to step in before things like this can become a publicity nightmare. So instead of bad publicity the headquarters got good publicity, the counter guy got a reprimand, and the lady felt better. Damage control like that is invaluable in a socially connected world and companies know it and are willing to pay well for the service.
Demand for Social Media Marketing Consultants
With all the big companies looking to create a social media presence the demand for Social Media Marketing Consultants is vastly outstripping supply, especially since no one really has any job experience yet, so the field is wide open. As mentioned in 10 Awesome Jobs You Can Do From Home, the salaries and benefits are competitive and you can often work from home since all you need is a computer and an internet connection. You can even work from your cell phone. You can’t go to college and get an education in Social Media Marketing Consulting so you need another way to learn the ropes. Fortunately, one successful Social Media Marketing Consultant has created an excellent program designed to help you learn the ropes and quickly become a Social Media Consultant either as your own business or for someone else.
As social media keeps on exploding, the need to produce and hire good Social Media Marketing Consultants has become all the more important. Social media is definitely here to stay, and so is the need for social media marketing consultants. If you are interested in a fun high paying career you can find out more about how you can become a Social Media Marketing Consultant here.
