Social Media is all the rage right now. Sites like Facebook and Twitter have opened the doors to a new level of interaction for both people and brands by promoting conversion across the web. Suddenly, having a social media presence has become a necessity for businesses resulting in a boom of social media marketing strategists and specialists whose job it is to help businesses grow through their interactions on the social web.
I play guitar professionally and have been performing since I was in high school. But when it came time to choose a career I was stumped. I considered going to a music school or go the audio engineering route, but I felt a responsibility to choose a more “mainstream” major, just in case the music thing didn’t work out. I have always been intrigued by marketing and advertising, so after a brief stint in some psychology classes, I finally set out to be a marketing major. I found traditional marketing fascinating and while all this was going on, I was starting to realize that there definitely something to be said about the amount of followers I was getting on Facebook as a result of my music personality. After I came out with my first album, I couldn’t really fully afford to do an all out marketing campaign, so I took to Facebook to promote it and had some nice success. When I came out with my second album, I followed the same routine and saw even more success. Suddenly it occurred to me that I have a degree in marketing and I really was enjoying the world of social media so it must mean that I have what it takes to be a social media pro. Wrong.
Through a friend of mine, I got an internship to be the “director of social media” with an old school website selling health and beauty supplies who had just set up their social media accounts and literally had one Facebook fan. So I came up with a plan for what I wanted to post and set up a schedule for both Facebook and Twitter for posting. A few problems however: 1) There was no set goal in the campaign 2) My posts came off a bit spammy and 3) I literally had no idea how to gain new followers. It hit me then and there that I really had no idea what being a social media strategist was about. I thought blogging was an old school hobby that friends of mine had and the only three people who read it were my friends parents and wives. I realized that I was a total noob. Or nooby (socialnoob.com was taken…)
From there I went into social learning mode. Joined various social groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, followed a ton of big social personalities on Twitter, and threw myself into social media books and eBooks, both good and bad. While music pays the bills right now (I play guitar for one of the premier Jewish wedding bands in the tri-state area and have a very nice project studio in my house), I wanted to somehow get into the social media field. But in order to do that, you need to KNOW and OWN social media. And that’s what I’m doing. I am a social nooby and I plan on sharing my experiences learning about social media and give reviews on the various content that I read and gain from.
Introducing me – the social noob.
