Heidi Cohen writes:

“Social media isn’t the holy grail,” according to Social Media Examiner’s Mike Stelzner, author of Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, speaking at Content Marketing World 2012. At first blush this may sound ludicrous coming from the founder of one of the largest social media blogs but the reality is that social media isn’t a business goal!

Rather, social media is a conduit for delivering content to and engaging with your prospects, customers, fans and the public, and to answer their questions. To this end, Mike Stelzner recommended becoming a publisher in order to build your own audience cost effectively by creating valuable content for your target audience. This requires knowing who you want to reach and asking them what they want to know. Once you have answers to these two questions, it’s a matter of giving your audience relevant content that’s educational and easy-to-digest.

Otherwise, “social media is just talk without listening” in the words of Content Rules  co-author, C.C. Chapman. Without taking the time to hear what your prospects and customers want to know, you’ll never create what Social Media Explorer’s Jason Falls, co-author of No Bullshit Social Media, refers to as “holy smokes content.” This information drives social media because it gets you in front of your prospects and customers by providing solutions to their problems. Therefore, optimize your content for people by using the words your audience uses to get found because your ultimate goal is to sell your prospects and customers your products and services, not just build a social media following as an end in itself.” Get the rest here: Why Social Media Isn’t The Holy Grail (& Neither is Content Marketing) | Heidi Cohen.

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