what's so special about social media?

the reaction to "i run social media for a living" runs the gamut from, "you do what?" to "that sounds like it must be so much fun" to "i can't believe you get paid to play around on facebook all day."

of course, no one likes their profession to be dismissed as something that's really easy to do. it's like art - anyone can do it, but are you actually doing it? and is anyone actually paying attention or buying it?

that brings me to the question - what's so special about social media?

1. first of all, social media is like a giant case study, except people don't really compute that they're being watched. they LOVE knowing that you pass their ideas and feedback on. everyone wants to be heard and validated. and the case study is free.
   
   your customers will tell you exactly what they think of you. your potential customers will tell you what's keeping them from buying your product. and your former customers will tell you why they left, what would make them come back, or why they won't ever come back. the potential to listen to your customers is huge. whether or not you believe the customer is always right - you can't make money unless you give your customers what they want (within reason).
   
   
2. it's also a great place to make announcements. traditional pr and marketing has shouted, shouted, shouted. social media let's you shout widely, and then see how people actually react. but because people have to opt-in to see your shouts in the first place, you have to be sure you have people from all teams available - customer care, marketing, PR, research, and development all have to work together.
   
   launching a new product? a lot of news outlets won't report all the details accurately, and that can lead to a frustrated, irritated customer that doesn't have all the information. create your own news outlet through social media. ensure that people get all of the information and that it's accurate through your social media - and they'll begin to trust you to give them all the details instead of the news outlet.
   
   this gives you an amazing chance to change the story people tell about your brand. instead of being the brand that is old, red tape, and doesn't move quickly, you can change that image by becoming the brand that listens to what their customers want, giving it to them, and telling them that they're giving it to them because they demanded it. you want these people to feel like the tribe that they're a member of fits their story about themselves.
   
   
3. you can sell through social media. people don't like to be sold to, but you make the deal sweet enough, and they won't be able to get enough of you. they also like exclusives deals - again, make people feel like they're a part of the club, but don't give away too much too often. then your deals lose their value.
   
   you can collaborate with other brands, too. if you're a smaller brand (or even a bigger brand), do a package deal, a sweepstakes, something that's good for everyone and moves out leftover inventory ... there's a million marketing ideas out there. make them work for social media. remember - it's got to be something people will talk about and that doesn't denigrate their intelligence or work. (i hate "create an awesome piece of artwork for us" contests unless the artwork that you've asked an artist to create is something they might show again somewhere. it's a waste of time and energy for many artists if they make a one-off for you, don't win, and the art's never seen again. red bull has done this kind of thing RIGHT.)
   
   

so when someone tells you that they run social media programs for a living, you might feel, "i can't believe you get paid to play around on facebook all day." but you should remember that the people that do this for a living work with communities and people all day. they must strike a delicate balance in order to be effective. they have to be experts on their brand, and they have to be entrenched within a company. the people who run your social media have to know who to call if a customer has a question they don't have the answer to. they have to have the proper messaging to answer frequent questions. and they have to have a plan to engage and get feedback from everyone. all while ensuring there's good design on the facebook tabs and that everything's under 140 characters.