When it comes to social media marketing, there are strengths and there are strengths. For one thing, there are different types of social media and different types of social media marketers. Each type of marketer has a strength they can play to, but most social media marketers need someone else to fill the gap.
Developers are typically technically proficient personalities who are capable of building cool applications and widgets. They are the bells and whistles guys who can make your MySpace page look first class or your Facebook profile attract attention. But bells and whistles without real marketing savvy is just a loud clang with no oomph behind it.
Planners are guys with real marketing genius. They know how to market a product or a service and get attention for achievements. But their technical knowledge is limited. While they can envision a plan and implement it, their knowledge and planning skills go only so far. Without the technical proficiency of the developer, they really can’t push the limits of the social media marketing mind.
Implementers are great at carrying out the plans of the planners and are good at learning the tools developed by the developers. They are not so good at the planning usually. They don’t know how to plan a marketing strategy. They can do all the hands on work that is necessary to make a marketing plan work, however.
A good social media marketing teams should consist of one planner (you can’t have more than one chief), at least one developer, and several implementers. You’ll need someone with the vision to know how to plan a marketing plan and specifically how to put together a plan that addresses the uniqueness of your product or service. You’ll need someone who can communicate with developers and implementers and keep them motivated. For your development team, you’ll need someone who can build practical tools that will play to your vision. You need someone who has no knowledge of “I can’t.” Your chief developer needs to be a know-how geek who will tackle even the toughest of challenges with optimism and be persistent enough to keep trying even against all odds. Your implementers need to be creative and able to learn systems quickly enough and you should have enough of them to accomplish the task you want to set before your team.
One final note: When setting out on your social media marketing path, don’t let failure discourage you. It’s a tough run and even the best marketers in the world have trouble navigating the social media marketing ocean.
