I was pretty excited for our guest speaker today. Sheryl Connelly, CEO of Marketing Media Management, uses social media to help further a businesses goals and messages effectively. She develops social media strategies to really get the brand or company out there and draw people in. It’s something that I am really interested in and am considering for a career in the future. So hearing from a professional in the field certainly peaked my interest.
First she started off with an analogy that really made a lot of sense to me. The old version of marketing is like archery. A business would try to develop a message and aim it for you. If it’s a bulls-eye than good, if it misses than there’s not much you can do about it. The new marketing however ,which involves social media, is more like ping-pong. The business and the consumer send messages back and forth to one another. The consumer can report what they like about the company’s products or business and they can respond in turn. This way companies can become more involved and connected with their potential customers. This analogy, to me, perfectly describes the ideal scenario between company and consumer.
Connelly then went on in some detail to explain the steps needed in forming a social media plan and executing it. This is the part that really fascinated me because this would be the actual work part of the job. The gist of developing your social media plan is to distill the message down to the simplest way possible. The more complex message you want to send, the more complicated it would be to communicate it effectively. By simplifying the message you can then narrow down who the audience will be for your social media plan, who your target consumers are.
One of the more important parts of a social media plan, in my eyes at least, was to make yourself (the company) be human. One of the more difficult things I imagine would be to try and convince the consumer that a company is just as human as they are. They are made up of talented individuals who run an operate a business, just like you or I could be doing. By making the company more human to the consumer they can connect at a deeper level than they normally could. At that point they are no longer just customers and consumers, they are friends of the company. This creates a good brand image for the whole world to see.
I thoroughly enjoyed having Sheryl Connelly come in and lecture to us. She offered a new perspective on how social media can be used constructively and sending messages effectively. Her first hand knowledge will prove invaluable as the semester goes on.
devinb33 