I was talking with a smart entrepreneur in my business network yesterday as we were discussing the nature of the Digital Marketing world out there.  There is so much “noise” about how companies should be using digital medias to help drive their business.  I can completely understand why companies can be confused as to what might be right for them.  There is no one right answer, and it is an ever evolving arena that you just can not set it and forget it.

One of the areas we talked about yesterday was the negative connotation that “Social Media” can give business leaders.  I said I wanted to come up with a different term than “Social Media Strategies” as far as one our offerings at LTR Digital Group.  Since I am not creative enough, it will have to do for now.  It actually does describe the service perfectly, but it does not really differentiate the service in the marketplace from a billion other companies that offer it.

Why does “Social Media” have somewhat of a negative connotation?  I was reading this article from Ryan Holmes from Hootsuite on LinkedIn this morning and he was discussing whether or not job candidates should put Social Media on their resume as a skill set.  It made me think back to my conversation yesterday and wonder, “why does social media have a certain negative connotation” with business leaders?

One guess would be that as companies were felt the “pressure” to jump into social media, they did so with no clear strategic objectives and defined KPIs.  The result was a money drain and no clear tangible results. I’m no genius, but if you Google “does social media provide an ROI?” you get 402,000,000 results in .25 seconds.  You don’t have to go past the first 10 listings to get the answer you need.

Bottom line, I don’t think any job candidates should be hiding the fact on their resume that they have social media skills.  Companies should actually be looking for those skills so they can embrace Social Media and use it to their financial benefit.  Work through the “noise” and hire qualified people who know how to get a positive ROI from Social Media.  It should really be thought of as another Inbound Marketing strategy.

If you have questions, feel free to contact me.