Long Term Plan for Social Media is Building Digital Assets

Advanced social media marketing (thinking) – Social media profiles, domain names, online content, keyword rankings…digital assets? Your business has a website and your businesses is doing some sort of social media marketing (whether you realize it or not). In other words, you are the promoter and so is anyone else online (like it or not).

This massive shift of putting the publishing power into the hands of ANYBODY has made social media an online business survival tactic (or a powerful marketing tool). Even after 20 years in the digital marketing business, I still get that feeling every now and then (that sinking feeling), that we are not doing enough to stay on top of the knowledge storm coming at us every day. But it is the application of this knowledge that puts a business ahead of the curve. Therefore, a business not in control of their social media (any business not actively publishing content, where 3 out of 4 people are online), has inadvertently relinquished CONTROL  OF THEIR BRAND to anybody that cares to comment on your brand.

Does this concern you?

Is having control (or influence) over your online brand and your personal reputation important? (This should be a rhetorical question)

This is not meant to be a scare tactic, just a wake-up call for businesses sitting on the sidelines. Do you consider your BRAND to be an asset? If you were to sell your business today, would your brand (represented offline and online) add goodwill to increase the sell price?

Offline Brand vs. Online Brand (digital assets)

I had the pleasure of meeting with Jeff Pruitt of Tallwave for lunch this week at one of my favorite spots, Chelsea’s Kitchen. One of the more engaging discussions we had was concerning digital assets. Jeff shares the same viewpoint that we have as Mint Social, profiles in social media are digital assets (just like domain names) that are long term investments into the value of your brand and business. This forward thinking approach of social media profiles as digital assets of a business is not top of mind with businesses today that want immediate ROI for their marketing efforts. Is this short sighted thinking? To some degree yes. As the economy improves, businesses will shift their decision-making from being almost 100% ROI centric to include a more longer term thinking when it comes to social media. Social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, SlideShare, Twitter, Google, etc. are valuable digital assets that will add goodwill and an x-factor when it comes to your exit strategy options.

Give our blog story a test drive – “At what stage are you at with your social media marketing (for you or for your business)