As America awakes to hangovers, heartburn and half price products, and alliteration apparently, it’s a good time for some reflection. Yesterday, people all over the US gave thanks for the important things in their lives. Social media marketers should be giving thanks too. There are things that make our jobs easier, little extras that we all take advantage of from time to time. One thing we rarely do is give thanks, and today is as good a time as any to start.
Smartphones
The smartphone made social media. For years people used services like MySpace and Facebook as glorified email addresses with pictures. They were a more fun way to use your computer to talk to friends, but that was it. The smartphone changed the game; once you could take your social network everywhere your social network became a part of everything. Posting pictures as they’re taken, location check-ins, tweeting every single moment, these are the things that made social media an intrinsic part of so many people’s daily lives. Which is what made social media marketing and social media marketers.
Infographics
A less influential one, but still something to be thankful for. Infographics are perfect storms of shareable social content. They look cool, they provide information in a fun, digestible manner and they can easily be branded or shared through a brand’s social presence. Most of all though, people like to share them.
Link Shortening
This may seem really minor, but how could you share content without it? On Twitter, every share would be three or four tweets long. More than that, full URLs are ugly and unappealing. Without a shortened link, you need to add a huge amount of text to keep people from being distracted by a big blue mess at the end of a post.
Jealousy
Not a thing, but the main driver of most user posts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. People like to make others jealous, it feels good to have something or be somewhere that others want. That’s why people post pictures of meals, to show off. It’s also why people check in at cool restaurants, hotels or share other information that becomes vital data for social media marketers.
Bloggers/Content Creators
Content marketers and social media marketers are two sides of the same coin. They both use content to encourage interaction with consumers and clients. The difference is that social media marketers don’t need to create their own content. You can be a successful social media marketer if you’re a good content curator, you just need others to keep creating content.
Bad Social Media Marketers
Getting things right in any industry is about trial and error. Thankfully, the trial and the error is often done by someone else. Because social media is so open and global we can learn by watching. We get plenty of reminders of what not to do from the social media marketers that don’t know what they’re doing and the ones that are just unlucky.
Automation
Social media success is about constant engagement. But nobody wants to spend every waking hour working. Automation lets you continue social media marketing, even when you’re sleeping.
Friends of Friends
You know the friends requests we mean. The guy you sat beside for that tutorial in college who happened upon you on Facebook and added you without really thinking about it. You’ll never talk to him again, he’ll never talk to you and neither of you will ever worry about it. But he will see the products, content and brands you like and vice versa.
Celebrities
The smartphone may have made social media vital, but celebrities made it cool. Twitter, in particular, owes a lot of its success to the successful people who decided it would be a good idea to share too much about themselves on a social network. Many, many people joined social networks because they heard about a celebrity using it. Nobody joined social networks just to read branded marketing content.
Worldwide Events
Most social media marketer’s go to topic is whatever’s happening in the world today. From the Olympics to the Presidential Election, these things give people a reason to talk on social media. Which creates opportunities for social media marketers.
Each of these made or makes the job of the social media marketer easy. Each one is vital in the continuing success, so today they get thanks and tomorrow we’ll continue to take advantage of them. Now pass the turkey leftovers and get down to the mall.
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