Naja Faysal | Blog

Social media marketing is obviously the trend of the decade that everyone is buzzing around these days, and most companies jump on the band wagon and create facebook pages or twitter accounts without having a clue on what to do and how to do it. In fact, if you don’t have anything to say there, its better to keep your focus on your website and not go there in the first place!

I understand that it is important to join the conversation, engage with your audience and listen to what they have to say, but you as a brand or company are still in the eyes of the people a business that wants something. People aren’t foolish and with time they grow nervous, cautious and angry with companies following them everywhere to sell them something.

People finally found social networks, a place interruption-free for their entertainment and social interaction needs and what happened? companies start following them there pushing spam messages like usual. Funny thing is many marketeers go ahead and make judgements that social media marketing is not working for them and is not worth their investment.

You know, I can understand why some marketeers make such judgements. It is because social media game is different. They seem not to be able to step out of their comfort zone to embrace a new way of thinking and new way of doing marketing. On social media, you’ve got to be less obsessed about sales and more obsessed about having fun and giving fun to people. The essence of being entertaining is being relevant. So you need to first listen, learn and discover about your audience on these networks. Next step is that you’ve got to have an idea.

When we talk ideas, I think it all has to start from the brand’s roots. If you’ve got an inspiring purpose for your business, that is great, it means that you’d need to represent this in a cool way on your social networks. Make your social network an outlet for a cause or a mission that has nothing to do with your business. If you don’t have an inspiring purpose for your business, so its time to have one.

So to summarize, your social networks presence has to have an idea, gesture, cause, concept anything the makes you a welcome guest to the people’s private life, not an unwelcome intrusion.

Its the time ladies and gentlemen to Fire Your Web Developers! you don’t need them anymore.

If you have noticed, this decade the internet has been changing dramatically. Web Developers who used to show off as smarter than we are, telling us jargon than we don’t understand and trying to owe us and fascinate us are out of business today. Thanks to the Content Management Systems within the reach of each one of us, ordinary people can log in, design and develop astonishing websites without the need of you Mr. Developer.

Of course, I am not talking here about sophisticated eCommerce websites with high-tech functions (even those websites can be purchased of-the-shelf), but I am talking about the majority of websites you stumble upon over an ordinary internet browsing session. The thing is, you don’t only need those web developers anymore, but also it is better not to need them. The websites that are done using Joomla, wordpress and other CMSs are much better than those who are totally customized by an individual person or company. They integrate better with Search Engines, Social Media and Portals all over the continent.

What would the developers do, you might ask?

Well this is gonna be interesting. Developers today have a big opportunity to re-invent themselves to fit the new web 2.0 and 3.0. They shouldn’t be resisting the change, instead they should embrace it. Clients do not buy what they say anymore. Famous websites like MTV are done by Joomla. So their argument is getting weaker day after day. However, their chance is now to think differently and to ride the horse of web & mobile applications. Those internet geeks should drop their previous education and study the platforms of Facebook, Twitter, iPhone and others. Only then they would be able to respond to the global needs of clients in this era. Standing still and complaining about lack of business isn’t going to work anymore. Clients today need innovation in terms of technology, they don’t need a website that stays there and do nothing. They need widgets that provides beneficial services. They need Facebook applications that engages their people in their networks and entertain them. They need those iPhone cool applications that shake and shuffle. This is the future.

If you are a web developer who is still trying to sell ordinary customized websites, think twice. If you are a marketeer or a businessman, the doors are open to you today to do everything yourself. The website you are going to make for your company is going to be under your control between your hands and most importantly within the reach of your best customers.