If you know your product and your clients and can push yourself hard, you can become your own publicist, says social media authority and author Starr Hall.

Tech Sunday: At first glance, using social media as a marketing tool looks easy. But is it?

Starr Hall: There is definitely an art to using social media for marketing purposes, to grow your business and to build a personal reputation. In this digital relationship age, it is vital to learn online language and communication so that you can build credibility and long-term relationships.

Once you learn the art, it can be easy depending on how you approach it on an ongoing basis. If you stay involved online, it will get easier and less time consuming – however, if you only browse now and then and post a few times here and there, you will be on a hamster wheel and eventually become very tired with little to no results surfacing from your efforts or lack of.

You need to constantly seek exposure, yet know when to walk away from an opportunity that is not focused on your goal- Starr Hall

TS: Online and social media marketing is more impulsive than traditional means. But would an entrepreneur still need a marketing plan?

SH: Absolutely. Being online without a marketing plan is like jumping in your car without having a destination or without being equipped with a GPS. If you do not have set goals and a map, you aren’t even going to know when you arrive – there is no point to being online and putting effort into growing your business if you aren’t going to know when you have accomplished a milestone or achieved a goal.

TS: Does everyone need their own ‘Holly’, your online persona?

SH: I say everyone not only needs their own Holly, but they also need to step into the role fully and market themselves and their business every single day. Holly is only effective because she is a marketing and publicity addict – she eats, sleeps and drinks PR, marketing and online social media. This is where most businesses fall short – they do not make promotion and business growth activity a daily action and goal. Instead, they make it a monthly, quarterly or even yearly focus.

TS: Apart from knowledge of social media and online marketing, what hard and soft skills does a person need to become their own publicist?

SH: You need to be relentless and have the ability to push yourself and others to do better and be better every single day. You need to constantly seek exposure, yet know when to walk away from an opportunity that is not focused on your goal or market and when to jump into it. These are talents that are very hard to teach – you either have it or you don’t. If you don’t, rent a Holly, but if you do, you will not only grow a great business, but you will also be very profitable.

TS: What advantages – apart from the obvious budget savings – does being your own publicist carry? And what metrics can be used for measuring ROI in social media?

SH: You always know what you are promoting, when you are promoting it and who you are talking to. I often see businesses outsource their PR or marketing yet they have no idea where they are being promoted, what is going on online and where publicity is being focused.

If you are outsourcing, you need to know what you are outsourcing. However, if you are jumping in to be your own publicist, make sure that you track your efforts as well by using simple systems such as a Basecamp contact management system to track when you called, what you said, when you need to follow up and which e-mails went out.

Then at the end of each month, check your progress and also your closing ratio. Out of all the e-mails you sent, phone calls you made, places that you showed up at, how many converted to business and to more exposure? From my experience, your closing ratio for publicity should be between 60 to 80 per cent. My closing ratio last year was 97 per cent – however, I have been doing this since I was nine years old.

TS: Does online marketing have to be necessarily combined with offline marketing?

SH: Don’t put all your PR eggs into one basket – you definitely need to have both an online and offline focus. There is still a place for traditional media and it adds a great balance to your publicity. Traditional still reaches a lot of baby boomers and is now moving into generation Y with cutting edge tech and social magazines as well as TV and radio. On the other hand, while online is very focused on generation Y and X, it is also starting to grab the boomer market.

TS: How important is trusted influence in social media, and how can this quality be nurtured?

SH: Those two words together really say it all – trusted and influence. Do people trust you online? And are you influential? These are vital qualities that you must strive to have and to achieve online. People will only buy from you at the level they trust you and they get to you by being influenced by others whether that is via media, other blogs, friends, family or neighbours. To build trust, you need to be transparent and open without crossing the line. To gain influence, connect with the movers, shakers, high-level networkers and the media.

TS: How can a brand attract the right social media fans?

SH: First you need to determine the what and the who – otherwise, you might just bring in people who will never buy from you or build with you. Once you determine who that is – whether it is a stay at home mom with kids between the ages of two and seven or a high level executive who works over 60 hours every week – you need to set out and start to find them in groups on Linkedin or Facebook and also via Twitter lists. Reach out to them and start by having a conversation about them not about you. Always make the first point of contact about them, comment on something they mentioned in their profile or in a post. It doesn’t take more than one minute to speed read a profile and pick up on something they have liked or referred to.

Once you start attracting these people, their centres of influence will naturally follow because they will see you interacting online.

TS: Your pro-course in social media and online marketing, which is now also being organised through the International Vocational College, Malta - condenses the major issues in six modules. Yet how can students then keep up to date with the ever-changing developments of social media?

SH: First of all, students do not need any social media experience or background. I start with the basics and lead up to more intermediate and advanced topics and strategies. In my training centre and course, I always upload the most recent happenings, how to strategies and resources. Students will have ongoing access to these for the term of their course agreement.

Ms Hall is a social media authority, international speaker and Fortune 100 marketing advisor. She is also a columnist for Entrepreneur.com and American Express Small Business Open. Her latest book, The Social Wave, is published by Entrepreneur Press.