It would seem to me that the definition of marketing has been lost somewhere between ‘huckster’ and ‘social media strategist’ as of late.  I’d like to at least attempt to straighten this out and perhaps remove some of the tarnish endured by the term.

As an 18-year-old enrolled in a Marketing program at Conestoga College I’ll admit to having been a little confused by just what ‘marketing’ meant.  It was in these early days of my education in marketing (which continues today) that I heard one phrase responsible for making everything crystal clear.  It goes like this:

“Marketing is the unification of a buyer and seller in a mutually beneficial relationship.”

Simple, isn’t it?

Even with social media as an increasingly important channel the above definition doesn’t need to be rewritten.  Defining what marketing is must not be confused with explaining how marketing is executed — the latter has certainly changed and will continue to do so.

What social media does provide is a means to find out, through conversation, what ‘beneficial’ means to a target market while providing an open course toward unification. It also allows the ‘beneficial’ stuff to be shared and exponentially grow those ‘unifications.’ Pretty powerful when you look at it this way.

What are you providing that’s beneficial? How do you unite with your target audience?  Consider these questions carefully before executing any marketing tactic(s), social media-based or otherwise.