In the last 5 years social media has become integrated in the daily lives of Australians to such a degree that it is increasingly rare to find someone not using a form of social media, or to be living with someone else that does.

I like to think of Social Media as having given every person the ability to completely curate a magazine to suit their desires. As marketers we now have the ability to “advertise” in those magazines– so that we can almost speak directly to each individual reader personally – and furthermore, we can analyse data to understand exactly who saw our ad and how they interacted with it.

For many small to medium businesses, the full opportunity that social media presents is yet to be recognised. Further, the total digital space – from social media engagement, to a fully responsive website to an integrated social media strategy – are still yet to leveraged.

So who is the best person to drive digital strategy and management in your business? Let’s take a journey back in time… to a time before social media! When we had to use Yellow Pages, Radio Ads and local Newspaper Ads to increase awareness and get the phone ringing. Who was the best person in your business to write Radio copy? To develop a concept for a successful newspaper ad? Or to make sure your Yellow Pages ad would cut through the masses? Often this was managed with the support of an agency or more senior staff member

Social Media, a high performing website, an integrated SEO strategy – these are as critical to your business as the traditional marketing channels that were relied on a decade ago.

Digital Marketing now offers business owners a more affordable way to reach their target market, with greater access to data to ensure your message gets to the most appropriate people in the market, and to measure how your efforts are received. It is therefore critical that key staff are trained in the effective management of digital channels – or that this is outsourced to experts.

Digital marketing, social media marketing, search engine marketing… all have one thing in common and the businesses that will thrive in the digital age, are the ones that recognise this.

Mary-Anne