After 5 years of social media work, working in various positions from social media executive to specialist, working on page moderation, content development to campaign strategic planning and control, developing and improving the way of working on and thinking of social media marketing; These 5 years have taught me a lot, every single comment and every single brand I worked on. Here are 22 of the lessons I have learned during these years:
1- In social media era, customers got too lazy to read the information, try as much as you can to make your message very clear and simple.
2- Creativity lies in conceptual creative campaigns that can impress your target segments, be sure these concepts are relative to your brand identity.
3- Social media work is no longer page moderation or content copycat, authenticity can cross the hearts and minds of your target audience.
4- People can take your brand and products to new places and stages you haven’t ever imagined, their feedback and opinions are very important, however the most important is to get their feedback into action in coordination with your brand tone of voice, image and identity.
5- There is no longer a place for the brand that appears product provider only, If the brand doesn’t have an authentic character on social media, It will be easily forgotten and left behind.
6- Social media is a very dynamic environment, If you don’t keep learning, you will be missed out, good bye 😀
7- The first rule of social media is: Test, test and keep testing. You can’t imagine which content piece, ad wording, social media strategy or visual design that can get the best interactivity, so keep testing new techniques and approaches.
8- Your competitors don’t always play fair, study their dirty techniques to exceed them with your professionalism. Actually it lies in using the neat techniques in getting the best results. However the good guy doesn’t always win!
9- Spontaneous ideas can make a leap of faith in your social media marketing efforts, just give them a try.
10- Social Media Mastery can’t be a result for 10 days course or reading 10 how to articles, Mastery is a continuous process that requires ongoing practice as George Leonard mentioned ” To practice regularly, even when you seem to be getting nowhere, might at first seem onerous. But the day eventually comes when practicing becomes a treasured part of your life. You settle into it as if into your favorite easy chair, unaware of time and the turbulence of the world. It will still be there for you tomorrow. It will never go away.”
11- Social media specialists’ communities are full of fake learners, trainers and practitioners, please don’t get easily impressed. However it also full of a prestigious experienced helpful people, just take your time to know them.
12- The market and your workers’ community always will push you consciously and unconsciously to make distinguished product, but not every idea can be relevant or serve the brand. The real professionalism is to get creative and distinguished using approaches and ideas which can serve the brand firmly!
13- Social media work has a lot of details, keep organized, make lists, spruce up your steps, your data, and get a hub for resources, ideas and inspirational staff. The organizational process will take time, effort and attention, but it pays for ever.
14- Google it: You will always get a vivid vision of what you think of or what to think of when you are friend with Google search.
15- You never know if you never try, whatever they say about new tool, new approach or even new resource of knowledge, you won’t learn or produce good results if you didn’t get your hands dirty.
16- If you got your hands dirty in multiple areas of social media work, it will give you clearer vision about the effort, time and attention that every stage request and will make you be more understanding for the nature of every job.
17- Titles don’t create your job impact, you give the power to your title. In social media jobs, titles are really varied, it’s not what you called, it’s what will you do, how will this affects your learning and impact curve.
18- Healthy communication: Too much communication over social networks can hurt our psychological state and real social interaction, take a break every now and then. Weekends are very important!
19- Be a partner: Always be a partner for your clients and customers, for your clients: Advise, suggest and always take the extra mile for the development and improvement of brand social media activities.
For your customers: appreciate their feedback, try to expect their problems, questions or inquiries and be ready for them!
20- Mike Troiano, CMO of Actifio, summed up the social media data analysis dilemma with the following perspective: “There’s a difference between data and the truth. It’s our job to make sure we see the truth.”
21- Social Media marketing is a commitment to brand building that would not only help generate leads, but also differentiate the brand as an industry leader and keep it the top of mind of its target audience.
22- Richard Feynman, one of the prestigious physics scientists, said once: “Know the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something” I always meet people who says marketing, social media, digital expressions, but has no idea about what is it.
And at the end of the day, we always think we have grown old and experienced, but we are still learning how to grow!