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Ever talk to a member of the species Expertum Social Medium? You know – the social media “expert” who seems to always be on his computer and suffers from social media addiction. He meticulously curates his followers, who he follows and any lists he’s created, using some strange purity test.
Expertum Social Medium has probably spoken at a few Chamber events and helped out several small businesses by setting up their social media accounts and coaching. Some have even graduated to work on real social projects with big budgets behind them. These campaigns generally rely on some wishy washy metrics in lieu of real ROI.
RIP Social Media Experts
In reality, Expertum Social Medium doesn’t understand the role content marketing plays in social media, let alone search. He’s very adept at being a community member, but not at monetizing a community or driving qualified traffic to it. Business concepts like lead capture, nurturing and the sales funnel are foreign to him.
Michael Brenner said it best in his post The 2013 Marketing Predictions Post: Content Marketing And Social Business:
“Content marketing has become a huge buzzword in marketing lately as people have mastered the mechanics of social media channels but are finding that they aren’t seeing any results.”
“Marketers are beginning to understand that the road to success in the social business world is paved with valuable content that customers want.”
Introducing the Inbounder
Social media isn’t the only channel that requires good community-building content. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) does, too. Google’s updates over the last two years have solidified this reality.
In order to monetize, social media marketers need to embrace strategic content marketing for community development, demand generation, conversion and nurturing. Maximizing search traffic requires the same thing.
The convergence of social, search and content marketing, as described above, should, for the first time, be recognized and generally accepted across the business spectrum in 2013. Expertum Social Medium will be displaced by the Inbounder when this happens.
The Inbounder understands monetization, the sales funnel and the role of quality content, conversion and community. They’re experts in all of the inbound marketing channels, lead capture, lead nurturing and customer acquisition.
What this Means for Brands in 2013
The strongest brands of tomorrow have started building their online communities already. The Inbounder skill set is required to build and properly monetize an online community that consumes, shares and contributes valuable content.
This skill set will be highly sought after and difficult to find. However, the reward of creating inspired, community-driven consumers should motivate brands to seek out The Inbounder, while simultaneously driving Expertum Social Medium to extinction.
Chad Pollitt
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