Social Media Marketing Can't Help Us

Nope, social media marketing can't help us:

• if we avoid it and say, "but this is the way we've always done things." Municipalities have always balanced budgets by cutting services. Do we like that? Or are there other options?
• if we don't use it.
• if we refuse to ask our patrons and customers how they would like to get information about programs and services.
• if we don't realize that 90% of teens do not open e-mail - they text or use social media.
• if we don't give our patrons and customers an online community to advocate for us.
• if we allow ourselves to get overwhelmed.
• if we don't ask for help.
• if we don't experiment and try new things.

Budgets are being cut and we need to increasingly depend on whatever free venues are available to us. Next to word-of-mouth advertising, social media marketing is arguably the best free venue. Start out small. Create a profile for yourself on LinkedIn or create a Facebook page for yourself or sign up for a Twitter account. These three are keys for us right now. Don't spend a lot of time on it, but take a look for now.