Chapter 2 of Secrets
of Social Media Marketing, starts off by making a very interesting and
rather important point about social media marketing; tools are secondary when
it comes to applying social media marketing. What comes first is the business
goal; what needs to be accomplished. Without this, social media marketing will
not be as successful as it has the potential to be.
One of the most important things the chapter suggests
companies need to do in order to be successful is to listen to the needs and
concerns of their customers. Listening, according Gillin, is a form of showing
the customer that you care. In order to achieve this, companies must open up
the lines of communication and learn to take themselves less seriously.
Chapter 6 outlines the different categories social networks fall
in to, and how these social networks are similar. One thing that social networks
have in common is how they allow people to connect with one another and build
personal relationships. While this is easy when it comes to the interactions
between one social networker and another, it is not as easy for marketers
within the social networking realm. It is essential, to a social media marketer’s
success, that they learn how to make personal connections and build
relationships as “partners rather than sellers” (Gillin, 104). Instead of
building a strict business relationship with potential customers in the social media
world, it is better to build personal relationships that can potentially lead
to a better business relationship.
Chapter 1 and two of Howards, Design to Thrive, begins with the types of online communities
clients tend to seek out, and the difference between social networks and online
communities. Social Networks tend to put the individual at the center of the
relationship, while communities deem the focus on the individual as secondary
to the “user’s commitment to a core set of interests, values, and communication
practices” (Howard 15). The most important part of this chapter was the
introduction to RIBS, or “the four elements for long-term success” (Howard, 7).
Remuneration, influence, belonging, and significance, are the four elements
that make up RIBS. Remuneration represents “what is necessary in order to build
a successful online community and social network” (Howard 7). In order for
people to want to become members of social networking sites, there must be
something to be gained. This is essentially the essence of remuneration.
Influence, as described by the chapter, is allowing the
community to have a voice and giving them control over that voice.
To me, an important part or goal of social networks is
giving people a place to “belong” or to fit in. This is what the Belonging in
RIBS signifies. Significance, the last part of RIBS, is what allows a community
or a social networking site to be successful.
