Social Marketing: Creativity and innovation are key, says deviantART’s Dan Leveille

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

Dan Leveille

I’m asking three questions of some leaders in the field of social marketing and this is what I learned. This is No. 19 in the series (see the links below for other posts in the series).

Today: Dan Leveille, Product Marketing Manager at deviantART.com in Los Angeles and (in the interests of disclosure) a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology where I teach. He can be found on Twitter as @danlev:

"Creativity and innovation are definitely some of the most important skills to have in social marketing," Leveille says.

Since social is so hot right now consumers are being hit left and right on the web with advertisements and marketing, he says.

"Which means that you need to stand out from the rest by having innovative campaigns that not only get people's attention, but retain it."

What skills are the most important in social marketing?

"Understanding how and why people use social media is a really important," Leveille says.

"Not only should you understand your audience, but you should understand the social platforms you are using.

"Each social network has unique communities, so you should study and understand them before you just jump in and try marketing to them," he says. 

"Social marketing is an extremely important part of the marketing mix," Leveille says.

"As seen time and time again, social marketing is generating more sales for almost every type of company.

"Some businesses are finding it beneficial to invest more resources into it over traditional types of promotion.

"That being said, not every brand has it easy," he says "Some types of brands or products are tough to sell, so depending on what you're marketing, you may have to get extra creative."

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: Be interesting to succeed, says author Paul Gillin
Social Marketing: Utility leads to success, says Google’s Avinash Kaushik
Social Marketing: Understand how marketing fits in, says Amber Naslund of SideraWorks
Social Marketing: 'The lighter fluid on the marketing bonfire,' says author Ric Dragon
Social Marketing: It's definitely a team sport, says Toyota’s Scott DeYager
Social Marketing: Reevaluate the traditional '4 Ps', says marketer Valerie Simon