Social Media Is NASCAR- Content Management is the racetrack- Any questions?
I know you were waiting for part II of WordPress Plugins and Tools but that can wait. Take a few minutes to read this. We’ll tune you to part II of WordPress Plugins and Tools later on.
Social Media is effectively 3-5 years old (depends who you ask). I can count on my hand how many companies are really using Social Media effectively. According to a survey conducted by Junta 42, content marketing spending comprises 33% of the total marketing budget (this is up 11% from 2008) Let’s get back to the title analogy here. Social Media is your typical NASCAR car. It’s a high performance, suped up, fuel sucking, thrill ride! It’s ready to go as soon as you shift your business into gear and slam on the gas. You better get this car on the right track or you’ll have no way of controlling it. This is where Content Management comes into play. You’ve got a ton of power behind your new found thrill ride, but you have to have the right content to control this influx of traffic coming your way. Put your Social Media campaign on the wrong track and you can seriously hurt the passengers and your audience…even kill them. Ok, maybe you won’t kill anybody with less than stellar content, but you sure as hell will kill any kind of quality traffic being generated from that powerful Social Media campaign.
Social Media Thrill Ride
You have to remember that the content you create needs to be written as if people really care about what you are writing about. Sure you still have to write for the search engines, but writing for your readers specifically will make sure that you stand out among the usual businesses out there and create a personal connection with your audience.
The great thing about Social Media is that anyone can start a campaign for really very little budget. It’s simple…create an account, find people to follow, contribute to conversations, give back to those conversations…end up with a ton of followers and create your own twitterverse where you control the message. Seems simple right? The crucial part about this simplistic formula is the “give back” part. This is your “track” and this is what you have to do to keep that beast “Social Media” on the right path.
If you don’t have a way to contribute and give authentic information to help your followers, then your hot rod (Social Media) will burn rubber taking to the streets. You’ll waste your resources on burning up the place but you’ll really get no traction. Your message won’t get out. Making sure your resources are focused to the “right track” is the art of Content Marketing. If you know your message, but aren’t sure how to translate your ideas or thoughts…hire someone to do it. Here’s three lasting stats to leave with you:
- 6 out of 10 Marketers are going to spend more on their Social Campaigns in 2010
- Smaller companies spend more than 2x that of larger companies on content marketing
- Only 7% of marketers are spending less on content in 2010
Bottomline: Don’t get behind the wheel of your Social Media campaign without having quality content to direct it to.