I had a professor once ask me for the definition of marketing (BTW, he was hiring me for my first teaching gig ever…a grad. level marketing class and I was nervous as all get out!) and as I stammered for a super smart response he said “Beth, you know the answer. It’s simple. It’s the exchange of goods/services for money/barter. That’s it.”

Why do I mention this? Because you brought it all back home… sometimes as “professional” marketers we forget this simple definition and try to convolute it instead of just offering value.

This post and all the comments afterward sure stopped me in my tracks. I recently left a job – or should I say the job left me – to start up my business again. I have been designing and developing websites for small business for nearly 12 years now. I’m in the process of rethinking my own services and how I will present them. In addition to design & development, I also offer SEO services, and now (dare I say) Social Media Marketing.

Hi. My name is Kathy, and I am not a “Marketing Professional.”

In reading the posts I needed to stop, step back and think for a moment as to whether I wanted to continue with that description for what it is that I offer. In a nutshell, I help the businesses I work with to develop a plan using a combination of onsite and offsite methods for promoting their website and their business via their website and the internet.

SEO starts with the basics – a well designed and optimized site with copy that is readable, relative and keyword balanced. There are additional steps including article writing and submission. The next step is to incorporate viral marketing (there’s that word again) using a variety of (what is referred to these days as) Social Media tools.

I am not a big company serving big companies. Some of my clients generally do not have a marketing budget or any other marketing plan except for their business cards and brochures. Some barely have a budget for a website, let alone a huge marketing effort. So in their case what I do for them IS their marketing effort. Its not media, or marketing, in the “Madison Ave. sense of the word” as Roger from C&M put it. But what it does do for very small businesses is get the word out – or market – them to people trying to find their types of good and services.

I’m not going to argue with the buzz words of “social media.” As we all know vocabulary and the semantics change so often these days its hard to keep up with it all. (Just the other day someone called me Phat and I just about punched them in the nose!) I like those terms – social media – together, from a techie’s point of view, they really get the meaning across – today’s meaning. And they have a sexy sorta sound to it that people like. And I like the very basic sense of the word “market” – Mar”ket, v. t. To expose for sale in a market; to traffic in; to sell in a market, and in an extended sense, to sell in any manner; as, most of the farmers have marketed their crops (especially the ‘traffic in’ part).

I am not a MarCom person. I am a very intuitive and savvy tech person. And I am great at understanding people and how they understand – social media. It works for me!

For us non-Madison Ave types, or professional MarCom folks, marketing just means getting the word out and selling our stuff. Our goal is not to diminish your profession or skills. So, no offense, but I think I’ll keep the word ‘marketing’ in there. still, I might modify it to say “Social Media Strategy and Marketing”. (I liked what Leslie Carothers said).