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We rank as one of the top 10 social media marketing agency practices in Canada, and we have for almost a year now, according to one of the companies that tracks such things in the Canadian market. It’s one of those things I’ve invested little more than a raised eyebrow and amused smile over.

Until the phone started ringing.

Having been an authority with regards to things search marketing, including the requisite PPC, SEO and analytics for more than a decade now, we’re well versed in content propositions. And having tracked Wikipedia, Amazon and Ebay, for well over the same decade, we understand UGN. User Generated Content. Content is still king. But it’s content that must be mastered in 140 characters with a lifespan of seemingly fewer seconds, proverbial Hemerocalis’ of social media marketing.

Of the moment is truly de rigueur as referrals, groupons and other things drive business models into vaunted billion dollar valuations. (See LinkedIn’s IPO, Facebook’s valuation, or Groupon’s $6 billion dollar Google rebuff.) Membership clearly has it’s valuation privileges.

Amazon with its reviews and ratings, and Ebay, with user generated listings, followed by Craigslist and Wikipedia, have become the social media doyennes of a generation already past, but they were in fact, its pioneers. And that’s something that needs careful analysis as both Amazon and Ebay created stratospheric business models that even Google seemed incapable of with it’s shopping portal.

Google, from an operating perspective, has monetized a business on teaching people to leave. It now needs to teach them how to stay and certainly, eyeballs are the crux of the YouTube.com model, another successful user generated content proposition (social media) model celebrating cats playing the piano, squirrels and guys riding horses. Google+ is another access point to owning the user and and his or her content.

Clearly there is something that needs consideration for social media. Williams-Sonoma has done a great job of firing on all social media cylinders and there’s a pretty good chance they know exactly how much Klout they have and they’re singing it on high from their TweetDeck.

To say we’re the best social media marketing agency operating out of Toronto or anywhere for that matter would be a little like saying Simon Cowell is a chart-topping singer. While he understands music better than most… We’ll let you be the judge. But we got to our social media marketing credentials in much the same way by being the marketing company informed by search, invested in the nuance that creates the ultimate success. It’s just that now it includes social search trends.

At the end of the day, a social media strategy is nice, like a beer on a patio on a hot summer’s day is nice. But is it necessary? As with any marketing strategy, social, search or otherwise, KPIs should be the drivers and objectives should be clearly delineated. What are the factors for success? And what’s the cost of getting there. Those should be known. From the outset. A social media marketing strategy is a marketing strategy nevertheless and accordingly it should have the same accountability demanded of other media.

Have a good one.

~ Shane Wagg