Social Media: Tired players injure the easiest

Can you imagine how difficult it was for companies to market their “Brands “before the creation of social media? Putting together a marketing plan for a company in the past was an expensive undertaking that did not really assure any company any returns on their investments, as it pertains to their marketing budget. In those days when there was no face book, twitter, LinkedIn, your advertising options were fairly limited. Yellow pages and newspaper advertisements along with TV and Radio were the only, portals available for reaching the masses. Those who controlled these mediums of advertising dominated the advertising marketplace. For those companies that had to advertise their products and services to the masses, they had no choice but to spend copius sums of money to the dominating advertising companies at exorbitant rates.

This business environment created a gladiator like environment, for advertisers and companies looking to advertise their products and services. You either had to pay to play and hang in there until you were the last man standing. Tired players who could not afford to play were soon phased out, as companies continued to fight these wars for their market share. These companies soon realized that they were caught up in an endless that slowly but surely depleted their marketing budgets. Gradually many companies that could not keep up with the big boys and girls, simply found themselves being forced out of the playground. Tired players simply got injured quicker for lack of financial stamina.

Marketing and advertising have been around for a long time, and any company that has products and services has no choice but to spend money on advertising. As the social media landscape continues to evolve getting more sophisticated, companies, brand managers and marketing managers and advertisers are being forced to adjust and change their plans. Adaptations are being made and marketing plans and advertising budgets are constantly being revised. Just because your company has a huge marketing budget for a social media marketing plan, does not mean that your brand message will reach the masses. Frequent changes in the social media marketplace create an unstable unpredictable environment for companies, brand managers and advertisers.
 
Many companies and so called “Social Media Managers” are struggling with Social Media; they are working tirelessly spending all sorts of money blindly. It’s like the top pick professional athlete that does not take the time to take care of their body by resting, to regroup. Doing that only leads to a lack of conditioning, which in turn then leads to the athlete injuring his body again. Tired players always injure the easiest. As these athletes get injured, it has a domino effect on their whole team; the team begins to lose its rhythm and soon cannot function cohesively as a unit. To succeed in today’s social media jungle; one has to have more than just facebook, linkedin, and twitter profiles. One needs to have a comprehensive social media marketing plan designed for their company or brand, it is what I like to refer to as a “Global Social Mobile Footprint Plan ". Any business owner worth his/her salt always does their due diligence before starting a business. This is why they take their time to make sure that they have a business plan, mission statement set in place, before they open their doors for business.

 

How come, people think that they do not need a Social Media Marketing Blueprint for their Social Media campaign for their business? Does a competent coach knowingly put the tired players back into the field to play, knowing that their athlete is not able to perform at their peak? No they do not? Why? Because they know that tired players injure the easiest. So why would you as a business owner spend huge amounts of cash, on guesswork, when it comes to marketing your business through social media? Does that even make sense to you? Talk to a soccer mom, or any parent that has a child that plays any sort of active sports activities, and you soon realize that they are terrified that their children my get hurt on the field. These parents are worried of the sports injuries that can affect their children and the expenses financial and mental expenses that accompany such sports injuries when they do happen.

 
Similarly when it comes to marketing your brand in the internet and social media market place, brand managers and companies need to be concern for the health of their brands. A week social media marketing campaign that is not well executed is the equivalent of getting a sports injury, in the social media marketing arena. The costs associated with the rehabilitation of a companies brand and image in the marketplace could be staggering. Think that the Social media health of your brand online is not so important? Think again. Can social media hurt your brands image? YES it can, if you do not know how to use it.


The lack of a well defined Social Global Mobile footprint plan for your business will leave you with the equivalent of a sports injury and will slow your company’s growth and bank account. Why spend money on advertising if your advertising is turning your clients away from your brand? Does that even make sense to you? Many professional sports teams always schedule their teams training during spring. Consequently as a result of all these sporting events, the number of sports related injuries spike, so do the expenses that come with them. When it comes to your social media planning, can your business or brand survive another “spring training camp” like cut throat marketing season? Does your brand have a marketing plan in place that can sink or swim in this social media sea that is filled with sharks? Is your social media marketing campaign dizzy? Are you running out of breath? Meaning, is there a mechanism in place that assures your customers that their social media information will be secure and free from bots online? When designing a social mobile footprint plan for your company, how does your social media manager ensure that your company’s treasure, which is your brand, is protected from Bots online? Injured players injure easiest. If you do not want to get inured by bots online, you need to set up a secure base of operations. Keep your clients, not the robots that are crawling your server looking to place spy ware on your clients social media campaigns while you run them.

There is no quick fix for a concussion, they require immediate medical attention, and anyone that takes them for granted does so at their own peril. There are no home remedies or one size fits all solutions in social media. A robust social media marketing Global Social Mobile footprint plan takes the following factors into account when crafting a marketing strategy for your client, or their brand.

a)       What type of secure delivery methods should be employed when running a social media campaign for 
           a client?
b)       What is the appropriate mode of delivery for your client’s content?
c)       Who is your clients target audience?
d)       Is the content engaging so as to ensure loyalty?
e)       How frequently should a campaign be run?
f)        In what geographic area should the campaign be run?

These are just a few of the concerns that have to be addressed when designing a social media marketing campaign. Always be proactive and anticipate potential problems and have a back up plan to back up the backup plan. If you just start throwing out links and tweets out there on the internet, all you will do is attract the attention of search engine bots that will blacklist you. Sorry but that is the truth, search engines are now looking for spam social media, and you do not want to get caught up in that mess. Don’t become a casualty of the social media battle ground, it will cost you more than you are ready to part with financially and in other ways too. Remember! Tired players injure the easiest, be proactive and self police your companies brand in the social media marketplace.

Have you ever wondered why people gravitate to the next new shiny social media toy that beckons at them? It is because society has programmed us to always want the newest shiny toy that just came out. Look at the cell phone industry, they always have a new cell phone being released, and millions of people simply just cannot resist their charm. They will line up at 3am in the morning to buy the latest cell phone from their favorite manufacturer. This is the same sickness that many advertisers and brand managers suffer from. They have heard that for them to be successful in their advertising efforts, they have to spend huge sums of money on social media. They have become social media junkies, addicted to the next new Mobile App, Social Network. They have no sense of direction, and do not demand accountability from the social media providers that they spend their hard earned money on. They are like sheep being lead by a pack of wools, and if there is one thing that predators are good at noticing, it’s the tired animal that cannot keep up with the pack. They know that tired players injure easiest.

Is your company depending on some unpaid college intern for your company's social media marketing plan? What makes you think that they have your company’s interests at heart? Can your company really afford to entrust your social media marketing needs to the hands of an unpaid intern, whose preoccupations are just to get a job from you or someone else? That is the same as putting an exhausted athlete to play with no rest, they will get injured. Tired players injure the easiest. If the tired players in social media are the ones that injure the easiest, who are the winners in this game? The winners in social media are the ones who take the time to plan their social media strategies, and not leave anything to chance. They are the ones who demand a social media blueprint plan for the social media marketing needs. They have realized that the social media run is not a sprint but a marathon. They have been burned financially, and are tired of spending tons of money on cheap autoposting, cookie cutter software that do not produce any results because they cannot adapt as technology changes. They have been bitten financially and have realized that spending money of cheap social media software solutions that do not really offer any value for their companies brand only injures their brand. Again, tired players injure easiest.


If you do not want to be the tired player that injures easiest in social media, you have to make deliberate decisions and take deliberate actions that produce specific results. You get what you pay for, pay for garbage, and get garbage. Garbage in, garbage out, simple as that. In Social Media there are no short cuts, no guessing. There are no free lunches in social media, You can either continue spending your hard earned money guessing, or you can choose to spend your social media dollars on a customized Global Social Mobile Media marketing plan for your business that get you the results that your brand deserves period, you pick your poison. The Social Media race is a dynamic marathon, always evolving; there is never a clear cut winner in this game. The same applies to the big players too, that is why you always see Google adapting and coming out with new products and services. When it comes down to it, the question is, do you have a solid social media marketing plan that can evolve with the currents in the social media sea? Is your social media strategy a dynamic or it is based solely on facebook, twitter instagram and linkeidin?

When it comes to social media marketing, it’s not about winning or losing, it comes down to planning and strategizing. For example, there is no benefit in having 1 Million people like your facebook page, if you do not have a plan to engage them after the fact to increase your sales. You have to have a plan to manage your social media experience online, and it cannot be based on guesswork and goodwill. You have to have a blue print that guides you on how to move from point A to point B. Does your Social Media marketing plan take into account what your customers needs are? Who is your target demographic? What research have you done? Who are your competitors? What types of Social Media methods are they using? What kind of results are they getting? If you cant answer those questions with your social media marketing plan, then you and your company, like the tired player are about to get injured financially very easily and very quickly.

Graham Odenyo is the Social Media Strategist and Project Manager of a successful Digital Marketing Social Media Mobile App Marketing Agency located in North Carolina. We work with companies to help them create and manage their own customized Global Social Mobile footprint plans for their businesses. We are a full services Social Mobile Marketing firm, offering fully customizable Global Social Mobile Footprint plans, from the conception of Mobile Apps to email marketing, to blogging, search engine optimization and YouTube video optimization keyword domination. For more information please go to >> http://affordablemobilemarketing.info , or send us an email at Godenyo@affordablemobilemarketing.info , http://www.linkedin.com/in/lippon/