Social Marketing: Utility leads to success, says Google’s Avinash Kaushik

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

 Avinash Kaushik

I’m asking three questions of some leaders in the field of social marketing and this is what I learned.This is No. 16 in the series (see the links below for other posts in the series).

Today: Avinash Kaushik, who is the Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google, the co-founder of Market Motive Inc., author of the blog, Occam's Razor, and author of two best-selling books: Web Analytics: An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0. He can be found on Twitter as @avinash:

The secret to future social marketing success will be a new skill, which Kaushik describes as: "The ability to execute utility marketing – in the purest sense of the word (and to avoid the opposite: shouting and pimping)."

In a blog post, he says utility marketing is "delivering such incredible value that you simply become part of your audience's life!"

He goes on to say that mobile apps are the channel to both deliver great content and collect data (with the consumer’s permission).

He asks: "Is there anything compelling and of value that you deliver, selflessly, to your current and potential audiences?"

Utility marketing is the solution, he says, and is pretty cheap.

"A decent mobile app costs infinitely less than producing a single TV commercial and — done right — delivers a hyper-relevant audience with whom you can build a relationship unlike what is possible via any other channel on the planet," Kaushik says.

"And you'll never have to remember to interrupt them, because you'll be part of their life already!"

How important is social marketing?

It is important at this moment in time, Kaushik says, but "will become crucial over the next couple of years."

And what skills are the most important in social marketing?

Successful practitioners will have "a combination of business savvy, authenticity and restraint."

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: 'The lighter fluid on the marketing bonfire,' says author Ric Dragon
Social Marketing: Don’t be timid, says Ford’s Scott Monty
Social Marketing: Understand how marketing fits in, says Amber Naslund of SideraWorks
Social Marketing: 'Talk to people as human beings,' says Gini Dietrich, marketer and author
Social Marketing: Its 'part of a nutritious breakfast,' says Christopher Penn of WhatCounts
Social Marketing: Make music to an audience’s ears, says Mahei Foliaki (@Iconic88)