16. The ins and outs of social media marketing

This week, our guest is Maggie Fox, founding partner of Social Media Group. The year-old firm is exclusively devoted to helping businesses use social media platforms. It had immediate success, signing a deal within its first four months, and has never looked back. A successful campaign for Yamaha Motors involving a blog drew double the engagement of the nearest related Web property.

Maggie talks about the importance of choosing the right person for a social media initiative. She also describes the process of building a social media campaign, from the important initial listening phase to engaging with bloggers on their terms. And she talks about why tone and manner count and why marketers have to be ready to give up control over the message in order to really make a campaign work.

Mid-level managers already “get” social media, Maggie says, but executives still need to be convinced. Fortunately, the benefits are so compelling that the sales process isn’t too daunting.

Download the podcast here. (15:30)