Used this metaphor with a client today, seemed to help the penny drop.

Social marketing is really content marketing. And the hard part of content marketing is, of course, content.

A two-year-old can create a Twitter account. The hard part for brands is filling that Twitter account (or blog, or Facebook page, or Flickr account, or whatever) with content worthy of the attention of the people you’re trying to reach.

The system that enables you to create and curate content worthy of attention – consistently, over time – is like the part of the iceberg that sits below the waterline. Brands that ignore this, and focus only on social account creation (the proverbial “tip of the iceberg”), set themselves up for a titanic failure.

<<Ahem.>>

If you’re in the market for such a “system,” meaning the people, process, and technology necessary to make your social marketing program work, we can help. Prefer to build it yourself? Have at it.

Related articles

• Social Media Marketing: What, How, Who (socialmediatoday.com)
• The Canadian who bottles icebergs (thestar.com)
• What the Future Holds for B2B Social Media Marketing (mashable.com)
• How Social Media Will Impact The Future of Brands (thenextweb.com)