This is a recap of marketCHARLOTTE, part three of three.
Part one: Lowe’s Mobile Strategy
Part two: Quaero and Big Data

The last session at marketCHARLOTTE was presented by Rich Tucker, Digital Marketer Extraordinaire (ok, ok, I added that last part but it’s true). First things first, he’s hilarious. You just had to be there! You’re welcome! ;)

Rich was one of the first people I followed on Twitter when I signed up for the platform in 2009 so it was exciting to finally meet him in person and to hear him speak at the event.

His presentation really hit home on doing more with less. “Social media” is not free but it does allow you to do more with the ever decreasing marketing budget.

My main takeaways were as follows:

1) Social media should follow your marketing plan, not the other way. It should be fully integrated into your marketing plan and not left to flail around on its own.

2) Focus and master one or two social media platforms. Go where your customers are and concentrate your efforts there. Don’t waste your time on platforms where the return on investment is low.

3) Engage with your followers.

Nothing upsets me more than a company that asks for follower engagement but does not participate in the engagement themselves. Set time aside to respond, ask follow up questions, and thank your followers for their feedback.

We’re in the people business regardless if it’s B2C or B2B.

4) Partnership, partnership, partnership!

Partnerships allow you to not only share the cost but to also gain new customers. You don’t have to be in the same industry but you should be complimentary to each other or have some commonality within your customer base.

Rich provided six ways organizations can partner together via Social Media:

Guest Blog
Social Good
Re-tweet and share each other’s content
Co-host events
Create content together (such as an e-book or a video)
Contests or other social medial campaigns

These tips apply to all business types and sizes, whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or a company of one.

What was your favorite marketCHARLOTTE session? What was the one thing you’ve learned that you didn’t know before? Have you since applied any of the advice to your business since the event?

Additional reading:
Why P&G Can’t Blame 6,250 Layoffs on Facebook
What in the Heck is Co-Marketing?

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Kseniya Martin