Social Marketing: 'Talk to people as human beings,' says Gini Dietrich, marketer and author

What are the most important social media marketing skills that graduating college students need to understand?

Gini Dietrich

I’m asking three questions of some leaders in the field of social marketing and this is what I learned. This is No. 11 in the series (see the links below for other posts in the series).

Today: Gini Dietrich, the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago-based integrated marketing communications firm, co-author (with Geoff Livingston) of the book, Marketing in the Round and found on Twitter at @ginidietrich:

A successful social marketer "knows how to talk to people as human beings," Dietrich says.

"Too often we get to work and get behind our computer screens and start spewing marketing jargon and acronyms that mean nothing to anyone outside of our organizations.

"If a social marketer knows how to talk to people without being a marketer – in the traditional sense of the word – he or she will succeed every time," she says.

So, what skills are the most important for college grads hoping to work in social marketing? Students should connect with their hoped-for employer on social networks, says Dietrich.

"When we are reviewing resumes of new college graduates, the ones that stick out (or make their way to the top of the pile) are those who use the social networks to connect with the agency online," she says.

"We expect someone who wants to work here will have already found us, connected with us, and begun to build a relationship. That's really No. 1.

"If you know how to use social media for networking to find yourself a job, we can teach you how to use the tools for business," Dietrich says.

Social marketing will become a very important part of the marketing mix, Dietrich says.

"We think social will become one of the ways all of us communicate in the future – just like email and the phone," she says.

"It's going to become increasingly important to understand how to use the tools to communicate with customers, prospects, employees, influencers, and other people invested in the organization."

So, what do you think? How important will social marketing be in the future and what MUST graduating students know?

Previous posts:
10 Experts Weigh In On Social Marketing
Social Marketing: Don’t be timid, says Ford’s Scott Monty
Social Marketing: Clearly connect business objectives, says author Aaron Strout
Social Marketing: Understand engagement, says Deirdre Breakendridge of Pure Performance
Social Marketing: A good marketer 'walks the talk,' says Kodak’s Jennifer Cisney