For many marketing managers and business owners there seems too much to keep up with and not enough time to do it.  This has always been the case.  Now with social media the growth in new tools and techniques has been exponential and social media marketing can seem even more daunting.

The benefit of the internet however is that you can get online and see what others are doing and learn from them no matter where in the world you are.  If you are in a business that would benefit from video marketing (such as tourism, accommodation, vehicles, real estate, retail and others) then get onto youtube and start watching videos.  It sounds obvious but make the time to do it.  Search for videos of your product, service or industry.  Check if any competitors are making videos.  It may be you find similar companies in another country are alot more proactive and using youtube well.  

If looking at Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or similar sites simply open a basic test profile and start clicking and looking around.  The setup steps are easy to follow and by using a personal profile it doesn’t matter if you muck something up.  You can then follow what others are doing and get ideas for yourself.  Again don’t simply look at a few direct competitors, but look at people and companies in complimentary industries and also in overseas markets.  Ideally look at companies with similar resources as your own.  If you don’t have the same resources as a big corporation then don’t get despondent if you see their sophisticated Facebook marketing campaign.

The idea is to simply learn by doing, and at your own pace.  All the information is freely available and whilst you don’t want to just copy what others are doing, you can learn and gain ideas.  In the process you’ll also gain confidence to get started properly yourself.