Social media is such a hot topic these days that I thought I should talk a little about it. It's a new important type of marketing channel available to everyone whether you're selling a product or service.
I've been actively using social media to promote the work that I do since the early days of it all. I occasionally try a bunch of programs out there and over a certain period of time, figure out what works for me and what doesn't. I don't consider myself a pro at it as I believe social media is always evolving and that you just have to be adaptable to change.
Every business is different therefore the types of social media tools will vary. Take this for example: I had a few people question why I don't use Flickr. As a photographer, it probably makes sense to have my pretty photos up on that website to be viewed by many. Sure, it's a great channel to promote your photos, but it just doesn't appeal to me.
Five main reasons for this is:
- The Flickr audience is mostly made up of aspiring photographers, enthusiasts, camera tech talkers, and the likes. It's great place if you like Internet chatting.
- I don't want my work to be praised, critized and taken advantage of by a large pool of enthusiasts.
- I wanted to gain feedback from the real professional industry folks that would tell me the actual truth about how bad or good my pictures are.
- The buyers aren't on Flickr.
- I've got a actual business to run and clients who take my work seriously to serve.
This now leads me to how I got picked up by a division of Japan's largest advertising agency, Dentsu Razorfish, a digital agency based in Tokyo. I remember going into the first meeting about a year back and totally blowing it. This was a project involving a social media project for a major camera manufacturer. I was super unprepared and the atmosphere was just grim already. I knew it wasn't going well. My presentation materials were just crap. Live and learn. I left their office thinking they would toss my business card in the trash and would never contact me again.
Well, I was wrong.
A year went by and I get the call from them asking if I'm interested in getting involved on this social media project for this same major camera manufacturer we discussed back then.
Thinking myself a year ago after how I blew that meeting, I wondered why it took them one year to contact me. Usually that never happens especially with a massive company like Dentsu.
I think with all this being said, consistency on promoting your product or service over time even when business is bad, just may convince those companies to think twice on why they should buy from you in the first place.
I'm speaking from experience not with just one company, but several.